General information on Coffeeshops

What are coffeeshops?

Coffeeshops are authorised sales outlets for soft drugs and the use of marijuana and hash is permitted at these locations. The idea behind this is to regulate the use and trade of soft drugs and to try to avoid that users are introduced to hard drugs. Individuals under the age of 18 are not allowed to enter coffeeshops or use soft drugs.

Conditions

Strict regulations apply to coffeeshops. These are the most important regulations:

• A customer is permitted to purchase a maximum of 5 grammes of cannabis per day.

• Alcohol may not be served.

• The sale of hard drugs is not permitted.

• Those under 18 may not be admitted to the premises or sold cannabis.

• Advertising drugs is not permitted.

Soft drug policy in Amsterdam

The municipal authorities have the power to determine the number of coffeeshops permitted to operate within the municipality. They can also enforce supplementary requirements to help minimise nuisance in the area surrounding the coffeeshop.

Amsterdam is dedicated to maintaining a small-scale, manageable and transparent coffeeshop sector. In mid-2011, there were 222 coffeeshops in the city and the large majority of these were located in the Centre District of the city. Amsterdam’s soft drug policy is focused on discouraging young people from using soft drugs, combatting public nuisance and protecting the health of users. The regulation of not allowing those under the age of 18 into coffee shops is especially closely monitored.

Coffeeshop owners are responsible for providing satisfactory information about the quality of the soft drugs on sale and are subject to thorough background checks.

An integral part of the implementation of the soft drug policy in Amsterdam is regular consultation between the City of Amsterdam, business owners in the sector, health care institutions (including the Area Health Authority) and the educational authorities. Coffeeshops have helped to reduce the prevalence of soft drugs street trading, especially to tourists.

New cabinet proposals for coffeeshops

The cabinet intends to place marijuana containing a THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) percentage of 15% or more on List I of the Opium act. Strong cannabis would therefore be designated as a hard drug and coffeeshops would only be permitted to sell cannabis with a THC percentage lower than 15%.

The cabinet also included proposals in its governance agreement (2010) to introduce a membership card system for purchasing cannabis. Only Dutch residents aged 18 and over would be permitted to apply for a coffeeshop membership card. The cabinet anticipates that a closed system of coffeeshops would make it easier to manage nuisance and drugs tourism. The exact commencement date for these plans in the various cities is as yet not known.

There are also concrete plans to introduce distance requirements for coffeeshops. If these plans are implemented, coffeeshops will have to be located a minimum of 350 metres from secondary schools and intermediate vocational education institutions. This would mean that 116 of the 222 coffeeshops in Amsterdam would no longer be tolerated.

The City of Amsterdam supports the ambition of the cabinet to reduce both soft drug use among young people and the nuisance associated with it around coffeeshops. However, Amsterdam has serious doubts about the impact and effectiveness of the measures presented by the cabinet for the city. Indeed, the City of Amsterdam fears that implementing these proposals in Amsterdam would result in an increase in street trade, enormous pressure on the remaining coffeeshops and greater health risks in general. Mayor of Amsterdam Van der Laan has entered into discussion with the government regarding the membership card system and distance requirements.