Heard about this and almost cried. 23 plus the 46 that are closing because they are to close to skools. by this rate in 2010 there will be no more coffeeshops in amsterdam and u better believe it. anyone from amsterdam know wats going on because this shit is depressing
Obviously there are new folks in Amsterdam's city politicians who want to see the drug trade lessen. I've actually heard about this for some time, officials aren't proud of their "tourist' status to the rest of the world, and this has been expected for some time. Doesn't mean they'll go away completely, but there will be less shops around obviously.
yes but i mean what can we excpect in the near future? i mean i honestly think theres gonna be less then a 100 shops soon
The dutch culture has a huge history of cannabis use, if anything it will just become more underground. Its sad to see the shops close though
Yeah, me too, and Amsterdam knows this too. They might not be happy but when the bud starts to dry up and the word gets out that the coffee shops are drying up then so will tourism. Soon it wont just be angry coffeeshop owners, but angry vendors, museum curators, cab drivers, and other tourist-focused businesses that will be getting upset at the sharp drop in profits. Amsterdam might not like to be associated with drugs, but weed put them where they are today, and if they decide to mess with that, it can take them straight back to where they were.
Coffee shops aren't the only good thing about Amsterdam, the art galleries there are incredible, and the city itself is quite beautiful. Still, it's a shame that all those coffee shops are closing.
Amsterdam was a great place to visit, historically very significant, and one of the centers of culture and art in the world long before they had marijuana coffeeshops, and will remain so even if they do away with them. I hope that it doesn't come to that, but Amsterdam will survive as it always has over the centuries.
Apparently there are a significant number of officials who were previously for the closing of coffee shops that have now changed their mind on this issue, realising that this would push dealing back onto the streets and tangle the cannabis trade back with the harder drugs. It seems that common sense may prevail. Some cafes will close but there is certainly no push to end the industry. On another note, anyone have experience with Portugal, do they have a cafe culture? Portugese food is awesome and to mix that with a nice J for dessert would be the ducks nuts. Might be worth a holiday trek there.
supposedly the shops closing are in and around the RLD where the city officials want to clean up its image. Don't worry about grey area its quite outside the center. Plus a stated before.... The Netherlands has a lot more to it than Amsterdam... even coffeeshop-wise you can find some stellar deals with some awesome green in say.... Den Haag? Rotterdam? Groningen? Utrecht just to name a few... expand peace, hippy
Just like any business. Some will close and fall, location/bad business for many reasons. Amsterdam is here to stay. the thread starter really put this as its closing entirely. Which iks a myth and gossip BS
damn it! I was planning a trip there too :/ I guess i'll just have to sit back and cross my fingers for oak-sterdam!