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Quick question for our Dutch neighbors: why not? I never understood why it is exactly that The Netherlands were kind of against the drug tourism. I mean, I'm s

by tommit 4y ago

Quick question for our Dutch neighbors: why not? I never understood why it is exactly that The Netherlands were kind of against the drug tourism. I mean, I'm sure your average pot head tourist is not that much trouble and leaves quite a bit of money, no? I studied in The Netherlands and always thought I'd be proud as a country to be that "progressive" in a sense -- especially once it became clear that other countries were following.

grapeskin 4y ago
Countries with loads of tourists have loads of trouble with them. Those problems are amplified when you’re flooded with college kids who are away from home for the first time and getting high for only the first or second time of their life. I guess there was enough trouble that some people thought it was worth trying to cut back on. Money isn’t everything
- scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago
  The Dutch also have an incredibly advanced information/agriculture/tech/corp economy. I'm no expert on this but I'm pretty sure that the money from the tourism might not be as much to the Dutch as we would like to think.
Dobbs 4y ago
Amsterdam has lots of issues with tourists that fly in, spend a few days, cause a lot of problems, do a lot of drugs, visit one or two high profile tourist destianations (which puts an oversized burden on these few places), and then fly out. Instead Amsterdam wants to court tourists who fly in, spend a week or two, go to many tourist destinations, spend a bit more money at many locations. It spreads it around the city/country, does less wear and tear to a few places, and makes the locals lives much nicer.
flycaliguy 4y ago
Personally, in 2010 I definitely walked across 8 lanes of traffic the wrong way on my first day in town… Must have been an actual highway. I have a vivid memory of cars revving their engine at me. In Canada the crossing signs with a countdown display how much time you have left to cross not how long the wait will be.
- monetus 4y ago
  This is a good FYI, thanks.
wickedsight 4y ago
It's a bit of a mixed bag, but usually the tourists that visit for drugs aren't the ones that spend money on good food, hotels and museums. This is a broad generalization, I know, but may just come for the weed, get hella stoned, drink too much and cause issues in the city. British stag parties are the worst example of this. These groups treat Amsterdam more like a theme park than a city... But that's just Amsterdam. A lot of the drug tourism isn't the stuff like that, that you're probably thinking about. A lot of it happens in border towns and is essentially trafficking by criminals. They come to the Netherlands, buy quite a bit of weed and go back to their home countries to sell it. In those countries it's illegal, hence the criminal part. These are not the types of people we like to have visiting our country.
lm28469 4y ago
> I'm sure your average pot head tourist is not that much trouble and leaves quite a bit of money, no? aha, they literally only come for weed and prostitutes, let's say it doesn't attract the most well behaved people in the world. Imagine the typical German or English 20 something years old tourist in Mallorca but instead of being drunk they're stoned. Low travel cost + mass tourism + young adults + drugs = problems. You can travel there for 70 euros back and forth from any major city in Europe It's limited to very specific streets but these streets are hell on earth, I don't even know why people go there anymore: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/world/europe/amsterdam-tourism-cannabis-prostitution.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/world/europe/amsterdam-to...
- adamsmith143 4y ago
  >Imagine the typical German or English 20 something years old tourist in Mallorca but instead of being drunk they're stoned. So they're sitting in cafes eating fried food? What exactly do you think stoned people do lol
  - piva00 4y ago
    Fall into canals; move in flocks between narrow city centre streets making a lot of noise; bike around with disregard to common traffic rules. I'm not Dutch and I really enjoy going to Amsterdam, have friends living there, etc. From what I gather those are the main complaints, just annoyances and not really major problems. Financing criminals when these same tourists go searching for other drugs, that's a real issue. Disclaimer: I don't believe that weed is a gateway drug and I'm very pro decriminalisation of drugs and legalisation of recreational cannabis.
    - chimeracoder 4y ago
      > Fall into canals; move in flocks between narrow city centre streets making a lot of noise; bike around with disregard to common traffic rules. Sounds like you're describing the behavior of people who've had too much to drink. Alcohol is already legal.
akhmatova 4y ago
I never understood why it is exactly that The Netherlands were kind of against the drug tourism. It's a subset of the problem of overtourism in general. I mean, I'm sure your average pot head tourist is not that much trouble and leaves quite a bit of money, no? Actually they don't, and that's precisely the problem. They come over on EasyJet, check into a shitty hostel, score some weed, buy a shawarma (and maybe some fries), oggle the working professionals in the red light district for a bit, and then leave a few days later. This is a stereotype of course and not 100 percent true -- but it also probably intersects about 60 percent with the spending profile of the average weed tourist. On average not usually the type to visit anything other than the most obvious tourist destinations, or patronize any of the better restaurants, or avail themselves to any of the amazingly cool stuff that city has to offer.

by tommit 4y ago

grapeskin 4y ago

Countries with loads of tourists have loads of trouble with them. Those problems are amplified when you’re flooded with college kids who are away from home for the first time and getting high for only the first or second time of their life. I guess there was enough trouble that some people thought it was worth trying to cut back on. Money isn’t everything

scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago
The Dutch also have an incredibly advanced information/agriculture/tech/corp economy. I'm no expert on this but I'm pretty sure that the money from the tourism might not be as much to the Dutch as we would like to think.

Dobbs 4y ago

Amsterdam has lots of issues with tourists that fly in, spend a few days, cause a lot of problems, do a lot of drugs, visit one or two high profile tourist destianations (which puts an oversized burden on these few places), and then fly out. Instead Amsterdam wants to court tourists who fly in, spend a week or two, go to many tourist destinations, spend a bit more money at many locations. It spreads it around the city/country, does less wear and tear to a few places, and makes the locals lives much nicer.

flycaliguy 4y ago

Personally, in 2010 I definitely walked across 8 lanes of traffic the wrong way on my first day in town… Must have been an actual highway. I have a vivid memory of cars revving their engine at me. In Canada the crossing signs with a countdown display how much time you have left to cross not how long the wait will be.

monetus 4y ago
This is a good FYI, thanks.

wickedsight 4y ago

It's a bit of a mixed bag, but usually the tourists that visit for drugs aren't the ones that spend money on good food, hotels and museums. This is a broad generalization, I know, but may just come for the weed, get hella stoned, drink too much and cause issues in the city. British stag parties are the worst example of this. These groups treat Amsterdam more like a theme park than a city... But that's just Amsterdam. A lot of the drug tourism isn't the stuff like that, that you're probably thinking about. A lot of it happens in border towns and is essentially trafficking by criminals. They come to the Netherlands, buy quite a bit of weed and go back to their home countries to sell it. In those countries it's illegal, hence the criminal part. These are not the types of people we like to have visiting our country.

lm28469 4y ago

> I'm sure your average pot head tourist is not that much trouble and leaves quite a bit of money, no? aha, they literally only come for weed and prostitutes, let's say it doesn't attract the most well behaved people in the world. Imagine the typical German or English 20 something years old tourist in Mallorca but instead of being drunk they're stoned. Low travel cost + mass tourism + young adults + drugs = problems. You can travel there for 70 euros back and forth from any major city in Europe It's limited to very specific streets but these streets are hell on earth, I don't even know why people go there anymore: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/world/europe/amsterdam-tourism-cannabis-prostitution.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/world/europe/amsterdam-to...

adamsmith143 4y ago
>Imagine the typical German or English 20 something years old tourist in Mallorca but instead of being drunk they're stoned. So they're sitting in cafes eating fried food? What exactly do you think stoned people do lol
- piva00 4y ago
  Fall into canals; move in flocks between narrow city centre streets making a lot of noise; bike around with disregard to common traffic rules. I'm not Dutch and I really enjoy going to Amsterdam, have friends living there, etc. From what I gather those are the main complaints, just annoyances and not really major problems. Financing criminals when these same tourists go searching for other drugs, that's a real issue. Disclaimer: I don't believe that weed is a gateway drug and I'm very pro decriminalisation of drugs and legalisation of recreational cannabis.
  - chimeracoder 4y ago
    > Fall into canals; move in flocks between narrow city centre streets making a lot of noise; bike around with disregard to common traffic rules. Sounds like you're describing the behavior of people who've had too much to drink. Alcohol is already legal.

akhmatova 4y ago

I never understood why it is exactly that The Netherlands were kind of against the drug tourism. It's a subset of the problem of overtourism in general. I mean, I'm sure your average pot head tourist is not that much trouble and leaves quite a bit of money, no? Actually they don't, and that's precisely the problem. They come over on EasyJet, check into a shitty hostel, score some weed, buy a shawarma (and maybe some fries), oggle the working professionals in the red light district for a bit, and then leave a few days later. This is a stereotype of course and not 100 percent true -- but it also probably intersects about 60 percent with the spending profile of the average weed tourist. On average not usually the type to visit anything other than the most obvious tourist destinations, or patronize any of the better restaurants, or avail themselves to any of the amazingly cool stuff that city has to offer.