At a sales talk for Amsterdam coffee shop chain biggie Dampkring, the exuberant GM of the famed chain looked apprehensive before launching on his sales pitch. The city boasts of the picturesque Amsterdam Boz, the man-made retreat, quaint coffee shops that would give Seine terrace cafes a run for their money, and the renowned the hooker zone.

Given the loophole in Dutch rules, small amounts of marihuana are sold at coffee shops that sprung up way back in the 1970s. The idea was that there should be a congenial and safe lounge for adults to smoke a little pot in a zone where other dangerous substance abuse would be banned. Talk about repressive tolerance.

Now the coffee shops are under pressure to be changed into private clubs instead, which means a party pooper as tourists would not be allowed in. Dutch Muslims are of the opinion that that these cafes are a bad influence on Islamic youth in a culture that crinkles its nose at any hallucinogen.

It’s nostalgia time for those “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” languorous days. The psychedelic haze crackdown does not mean that chains like Dampkring will shut shop but there will be a considerable downsizing and job cuts. If the slowdown and unemployment necessitates the making of another Amsterdam Boz to create jobs, so much the better for the environment.

The government’s stringent decision takes away the earlier leeway for pot. For the tourists this comes as a major dampener.
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