Coffeeshops Amsterdam openmsterdam open

As the Dutch government is relaxing more measures, Amsterdam is opening up for the summer and, moreover, coffeeshops will be allowed to stay open until 22:00.

Food and beverage outlets are allowed to open again between 06:00 and 22:00. A maximum of 4 people can sit at a table, which also applies to outdoor seating areas. In restaurants and eateries, a reservation, health check, and fixed seating are required. Self-service is not allowed. Entertainment such as live performances or video screens for sports matches is still also not allowed.

Buying alcohol is not allowed between 22:00 and 06:00. Previously, this ban went into effect two hours earlier at 20:00.

You can collect weed and hash from coffeeshops until 22:00. (Before June 5 coffeeshops were open until 20:00.)

Stores, museums, concert halls and more

All stores will reopen according to their regular opening hours. This means that late-night shopping is also allowed again.

Theaters, concert halls, cinemas, and museums can also open again from Saturday, June 5. For a museum, theater, or cinema visit, a reservation must be made, for a maximum of four people. There is an exception for children up to the age of twelve and persons of the same household. Here seats are also fixed, and a health check is done. At museums, a time slot will have to be chosen.

Indoor spaces in amusement, nature, and animal parks will also open again. A maximum of one person per 10 square meters or a maximum of fifty people per space at a distance of 1.5 meters applies.

(photo: Hempshopper)

Amsterdam is slowly opening

After a nationwide lockdown, Amsterdam is slowly opening up again. The government intends to open up society over a period of 3 months so that nearly everything will be open and allowed again this summer, albeit sometimes subject to certain conditions.

Coffeeshops, restaurants, bars, and cafés are open for takeaway. Outdoor seating areas at coffeeshops, restaurants, and cafés are open from 12:00 till 18:00. Shops and stores keep regular hours again and can be visited without an appointment. Hotels are open however hotel restaurants and room service are still closed.

If the numbers allow it, the government intends to take the second step of the reopening plan on 19 May. The terraces will be open longer and there will be more scope for activities indoors and outdoors.

Until this time, the basic rules remain the same. Wear a face mask indoors in public places. Keep a distance of at least 1.5 meters from people you don’t live with. Travel by bicycle or on foot for short journeys if possible. Wash your hands often, including when you arrive somewhere and before eating. Also, wash your hands before rolling a joint or touching weed or hash.

Celebrating 50 years 4:20

Happy 4:20!
Today we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cannabis-culture phenomenon called 420.

Four-twenty stands for April 20 (4/20). Many people worldwide celebrate this day as a holiday for cannabis enthusiasts. The phrase has even become a reference to the use of marijuana in general, but how did it start?

Some people think it began somewhere in California, where the police used it as a code for marijuana. However, the phenomenon probably did not start as a police code or a date but rather as a time.

Its origins may have been in 1971 in California, where a group of San Rafael High School teens, known as the Waldos, routinely gathered after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke weed.

The story goes that one day in the fall of 1971 – the harvest season – the Waldos received news about an unattended plot of marijuana plants. As they thought they knew where to find it, they decided to go and get the weed. The Waldos agreed to meet up near the statue of Louis Pasteur outside the school at 4:20 to begin hunting. To keep their plan quiet, they referred to it as operation “Louis 420”.

Although they never found the weed (After several attempts to find the marijuana field, the group gave up), the term 420 would forever stay associated with marijuana.

Now, of course, one crucial question remains: How did 420 spread from a small group of adventurous students in California to the rest of the world?

Worldwide phenomenon

The Waldos had a direct connection to Grateful Dead. The rock band had a rehearsal room in the area, offering the Waldos access to parties and rehearsals: “They used to use the phrase ‘Hey, 420’ to go to smoke, so it started spreading through that community.” Grateful Dead toured the world through the 1970s and 1980s, playing hundreds of shows a year, so the term spread through them.

The boom came when High Times magazine editor and Cannabis Cup founder Steve Hager started incorporating it into many he was doing, such as organizing events under that name.

In 1997, the Waldos decided to make things clear and contacted the editor of the High Times, arguing that the term 420 did not exist in the California police, and it was true. Hager flew to San Rafael and met the Waldos. He examined his evidence, spoke to others in the city, and concluded that they were telling the truth.

Over the years, 420 became a phenomenon, and April 20 became a date when people celebrate the cannabis plant and protest against marijuana bans.

We're Just Waiting For The Lockdown To End

To be clear, there is no ban on tourists. In Amsterdam, anyone over 18 can legally buy weed and hash at the coffeeshop. And everyone will be welcome to hang out in the coffeeshops again once the measures against coronavirus are lifted.

The coffeeshops are open, but currently only for takeaway and only until 20:00.

The mayor of Amsterdam did propose to ban foreign visitors from the shops, and who knows how far she will get with her plans, but for now, we are just waiting for the lockdown to end and normal life to resume.

Update January 20: Today, the Dutch government announced that it is imposing a national curfew in the Netherlands. The prime minister also announced several other new measures, including a travel ban for 17 countries. The curfew will be in effect between 21:00 and 4.30. Anyone caught outside without a valid reason within this time frame will be fined. Coffeeshops will remain open for takeaway.

Amsterdam is still in lockdown until at least Tuesday February 9.

Venues such as museums, theatres, amusement parks, zoos, casinos, saunas, indoor sporting venues, and establishments serving food and drink (including in hotels) are closed throughout this period. Shops such as clothing stores, shoe shops, jewelry shops, and shops selling craft supplies are also closed.

The government’s aim in this regard is to limit contact between people as much as possible. Supermarkets, bakeries, butchers, and other shops where food is sold remain open, as are establishments such as pharmacies, chemists, and petrol stations.

Coffeeshops are allowed to stay open for takeaway until 8 PM.

Basic Rules

The basic rules remain the same. Everyone must stay 1.5 meters apart from people they don’t live with. Wash your hands often, including when you arrive somewhere and before eating. Also, wash your hands before rolling a joint or touching weed or hash.

Mayor Amsterdam Proposes Ban Tourists

Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam proposes to ban foreign tourists from the coffeeshops. According to her, these visitors cause too much annoyance.

“In recent years we have noticed that the demand for cannabis in Amsterdam has risen sharply”, she explained to the public broadcaster NOS. “This is mainly due to tourists from abroad.” According to Halsema, those tourists come to Amsterdam almost exclusively for the coffeeshops and cause a nuisance in the center of the city. “Amsterdam is an international city and we want to receive tourists, but we prefer them to come for the richness and beauty of the city and for our cultural institutions.”

Weed Pass

The only way to keep tourists out of the coffeeshops is to have coffeeshop patrons prove that they are Dutch. This means Halsema has to install an admission system based on residency prohibiting tourists from entering cannabis establishments in Amsterdam. This disconcerting forethought means that the dreaded weed pass will come into play again.

Prior to the curtailed introduction of the weed pass in 2013, some of the fiercest opposition to such a system came from the green party (GroenLinks) in Amsterdam. Their defiance paid off because, even though the new policy was eventually introduced nationally, it was never implemented in Amsterdam or other major cities in the Netherlands. This compromise (the introduction of a new, nationwide policy of which the actual implementation and enforcement would be left up to the individual municipalities) was partly due to the efforts of the GroenLinks party in Amsterdam. Until this day, no one in Amsterdam needs to have a weed pass to visit a coffeeshop.

With GroenLinks being the largest player in Amsterdam local politics after the elections of 2018 (and with that the supplier of the city’s current mayor), it’s remarkable to see that this insane and offending weed pass now might be introduced after all.

Cultural Institution

Since the 1970s, the sale of cannabis in small amounts for personal use is tolerated by the Dutch government. The coffeeshops are allowed to sell weed and hash under strict conditions. However, the production and supply of cannabis remain illegal. Despite this paradoxical status quo, Amsterdam became the shiny, international beacon for cannabis culture. An ever-evolving culture that has been celebrated since the days of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

Today cannabis is not part of the counterculture anymore. It has exceedingly become a part of the mainstream culture. It finds its established traditions and heroes abundantly represented in art, literature, popular music, and film and has a rediscovered, contiguous history that leads back to some of the earliest traces of human civilization. What more does a “cultural institution” require to be to meet the mayor’s standards?

Most measures against covid-19 were relaxed during the summer but now the Netherlands introduced a new range of restrictions to control a second coronavirus wave.

As part of these new restrictions, the sale of alcohol is prohibited after 8 p.m. After that time it is also not allowed to carry or drink alcohol or smoke weed in public places.

Coffeeshops are allowed to stay open for takeaway until 8 p.m.

The new measures also make the wearing of cloth masks mandatory for people 13 years and older in indoor spaces. Some earlier measures, such as keeping 1.5 meters distance from others, still apply as well.

Good news! Coffeeshops in Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands will fully open again from July 1st.

Coffeeshops were still open for take-away, but from next week they’ll be allowed to offer seats and full-service again. Bars and restaurants in Amsterdam have been open since the 1st of June and, although earlier the government decided coffeeshops had to wait until September before they could reopen,  it looks like there is no reason to keep coffeeshops closed any longer.  Standard measures against coronavirus (such as the direction to keep 1.5 metres distance from each other) still apply.

UpdateNew Corona Measures: Coffeeshops Open Till 8 pm For Take-Away

The Dutch government is looking for growers to participate in a nationwide weed experiment. Farmers who want to take part in this national cannabis experiment can register from July 1st.

Despite popular belief, cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands – it is decriminalized for personal use and its sale by specialized coffeeshops is formally “tolerated” by the Dutch authorities. Although producing and trading cannabis remains illegal in the Netherlands, the sale of weed to the public by these coffeeshops is “illegal, but not punishable”. This pragmatic approach is subject to debate.

Currently, the sale of weed is permitted by coffeeshops, but the purchase and production are not allowed. Regulating the supply of weed to the coffeeshops would end an ongoing contradiction, as a coffeeshop is allowed to sell marijuana and hash within the formally tolerated limits, but its suppliers are not allowed to grow, import, or sell cannabis products to the coffeeshop. As one coffeeshop owner commented: “The front door is open, but the backdoor is illegal.” For more than 40 years, suppliers of coffeeshops and the coffeeshop owners have risked prosecution due to this deadlock. The closed coffeeshop chain experiment should clarify whether legal supply, purchase, and sale of cannabis are possible.

To qualify, growers must comply with the general conditions set by the national government. Among other things, they must submit a business plan and be able to submit a Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG). A maximum of ten cannabis growers is selected. The quality of cannabis will be monitored. The diversity of the supply will also be checked to make sure that there will be a sufficiënt choice for the end-consumer. Potential pot growers have to be able to produce at least ten different varieties of weed and/or hash to qualify.

With this trial, the government says it wants to solve the problem that coffeeshops may sell soft drugs, but cannot legally obtain their store stock. Last year it was decided that there will be a trial with ‘legal’ cannabis cultivation in these ten municipalities: Almere, Arnhem, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Hellevoetsluis, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg, and Zaanstad.

As more measures against coronavirus are being lifted in the Netherlands, the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum in Amsterdam announced that it will reopen its hemp and marijuana exhibition after the weekend.

The museum, which manages and exhibits one of the world’s oldest and most elaborate collections dedicated to cannabis, says on its website that it is set to welcome visitors again from June 8th.

Museum director Ben Dronkers: “It is important that we can open the museum to the public again. In these uncertain times, cannabis is a friend, not an enemy. It gives you an open heart, an open mind.”

The museum states it has taken the necessary steps to ensure ”visits are as safe and enjoyable as possible”. For the time being, visitors will only be admitted into the museum with pre-booked tickets.