From mid-May, smoking cannabis in public will be banned in Amsterdam’s red-light district, as part of a set of policies to reduce nuisance for residents, reports DutchNews.
Rules on the sale of alcohol will be tightened and closing times for bars and brothels will be brought forward “to give residents more peace late at night”, the city said in a press release. The policy was announced on 9 February, after increasingly desperate complaints about problems caused by some tourists following the end of pandemic restrictions. Last year, around 18 million tourists returned to Amsterdam.
Sofyan Mbarki, the city executive responsible for the city centre, announced a series of strict measures in November to improve the balance between tourism and city life. A “Stay Away” campaign will be launched this spring, targeting people whose only goal is to take what city councillors call a “holiday from their morals”.
There is already a ban on drinking alcohol in public and measures against drug dealers on the streets. Alcohol sales are also forbidden from Thursday night to Sunday in local shops and unlicensed establishments, but from May they will also have to remove alcohol from display or cover it up.
Smoking cannabis will be banned in public in the city centre, and the city will look into banning takeaway cannabis sales between 4pm and 1am Thursday to Sunday. If the nuisance does not abate, the city could also consider banning smoking in outdoor coffee shop areas. The measures will go into a four-week consultation period before a council vote, and all parties agree that action is needed.