Amsterdam Pictures
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Amsterdam's bike and foot-friendly city centre, in technicolor dreams,...
...and in a significantly altered state after the Queen's 'Orange' Day celebrations, April 30th.
These manipulated photos of Amsterdam - capital of the Netherlands (Holland) - attempt to convey the experience of travel around the 'Dam under the influence of legal and locally available substances which can have unpleasant effects on the psyche of certain persons.
And the news on coffee shop cannabis bans on sales of dope to tourists, December 2012:
Amsterdam police will turn a blind eye to foreigners buying cannabis in its famous coffee shops when a national ban comes into force next year, the city's mayor said on Wednesday.
The mayor's comments put an end to months of uncertainty over a ban on foreign visitors purchasing cannabis at the shops that was introduced this year by a Dutch national government coalition which has since collapsed.
"It has been decided that Amsterdam law enforcement authorities will not attach any priority to enforcing the local residence requirement," Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan wrote in a letter to the current government.
The previous Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition government which introduced the ban complained that coffee shops attracted crime and unwelcome visitors.
But the legislation was greeted with dismay by officials in Amsterdam, whose more than 200 coffee shops are a major source of income.
Out of an estimated six to seven million annual tourists in Amsterdam "around one in three of them visit a coffee shop," Van der Laan wrote. "Our concern is that if we applied the residence requirement, they would buy cannabis products on the street."
More from Reuters.
Netherlands Map | Netherlands Pictures | Netherlands Travel Guide
Amsterdam Travel Guide | 'Normal' Amsterdam Photos | Europe Map | Amsterdam Map
