Amsterdam considers banning ‘cannabis tourists’ from its coffee shops

Fed up with stoned visitors and worried by hard-drug criminality, the mayor wants to clean up the city. But will it work?

Strumming gently at a guitar, outside the nicest" coffee shop in Amsterdam, French tourists Terry Novel and Manon Fouquet enjoy a quiet joint in the sun.

They have no idea of the dark cloud around them and the cannabis sector in Amsterdam. The council has just spent a day debating whether to ban tourists from cafes such as Coffeeshop The Rookies - where the state currently turns a blind eye to foreigners smoking weed and taxes the profits.