Amsterdam’s Marijuana selling Coffee Shops Up in Smoke

Cannabis selling coffee shops, up in smoke in Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam almost 1/5 of all cannabis selling shops will be closed down because they are too close to schools. Due to new rules regulating Marijuana selling coffee shops, all within 250 meters of a school must be closed by 2011. What, selling pot within 250 meters of a school, say it isn’t so. What’s next in the Netherlands, banning brothels too close to schools as well?

ALMERE, Netherlands (Reuters) – Almost a fifth of Amsterdam’s popular marijuana-selling coffee shops will be closed down because they are too close to schools, the city council said Friday.

Of the 228 coffee shops in the Dutch capital, 43 must close by the end of 2011 because they are within 250 meters of a school, the council said.

The Dutch coffee shop policy has come under fresh criticism after the Dutch cities of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, located near the Belgian border, said they will close all their shops within two years to combat drug tourism and crime.

Amsterdam, home to a quarter of the nation’s cannabis coffee shops that are a big draw for tourists, joined with 32 other Dutch mayors or city council representatives Friday to back a continuation of the Dutch “soft drugs” policy of toleration.