Hip Guide to Amsterdam

This is GREAT NEWS for cannabis users in Holland (and tourists of course!). Now maybe the Dutch will STOP mixing their marijuana with tobacco in their joints! It's very unhealthy and addictive to smoke tobacco!

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

Cannabis will be exempt from a Dutch smoking ban that comes into force in two months.

Restrictions on smokers in cafes and restaurants will not apply as long as cannabis is consumed neat, without tobacco. The exemption follows fears that many of Amsterdam's lucrative "coffee shops" would be forced to close if soft drug users had to smoke elsewhere.

Liberal Dutch policies, introduced in 1972, on the sale and use of cannabis have generated a trade valued at more than £3 billion a year.

Source: Telegraph

Update: Some people are saying the Dutch will just ignore these bans, especially in Amsterdam.

Well it's finally going to happen! Next year the Dutch are banning all smoking in all coffeeshops, as well as bars and restaurants. This will help the Dutch comply with EU laws. Other countries have had to do the same. Whether or not this will mean you can't light up anymore is still open to debate as coffeeshop owners insist the ban is only on tobacco. Of course nearly all Dutch smoke their cannabis mixed with tobacco. So now you can't buy booze and you can't smoke in Coffeeshops, the only thing left is to purchase cannabis and I guess sit there and look at it...

Have fun in Amsterdam while you still can!!!
 

As of April 1, 2007, Dutch coffeeshops can no longer sell alcohol.  This covers all coffeeshops that sell cannabis products.  Awhile ago Dutch coffeeshop owners who had licenses to sell both alcohol and marijuana were offered a choice: they could choose to keep one of those licenses.  So most dropped the alcohol, although a few decided to stay open as a pub.

This means you can no longer purchase cannabis, smoke it and drink a beer in the same location.  Some coffeeshops have already dealt with this by owning a nearby pub where no cannabis is sold, but patrons can buy their ganja nearby and smoke it in the pub.

It's a bit hard to understand why this change was necessary, as there were so few problems with those coffeeshops that also sold booze, as they tended to be the most popular and most profitable.  Looks like they'll have far fewer patrons who stick around after a purchase.

We're still wondering if they'll ever enforce the EU's workplace no smoking laws in Amsterdam Coffeeshops.  Apparently the coffeeshops (and Dutch pubs) have been given some kind of exemption for now.