A new report reveals the cities in Europe with the highest concentrations of cannabis and cocaine use, based on sewage surveys. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dutch cities including Amsterdam and Rotterdam took home some of the top spots for the cities with the highest concentrations of cocaine and cannabis use, respectively, and ranked high in several other categories. 

Spanning the course of a week during spring 2023, a team of researchers tested the water in sewage treatment plants in 88 cities in 24 European countries, NL Times reports. The study was conducted by researchers associated with the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).  

Once researchers collected samples of sewage, they then calculated the concentration of six drugs in the wastewater per 1,000 residents to make the results comparable. The drugs researchers checked for are methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis, and ketamine. 

The Dutch cities that opted to participate among the 88 cities were Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leeuwarden, Utrecht, and Eindhoven. By leaps and bounds, The Netherlands ranked very high for drug use, with at least one Dutch city in the top five cities in terms of drug use concentrations—for almost all measured narcotics. 

Rotterdam is the cannabis capital of Europe, according to the report, being the city with the highest concentrations of cannabis residues in its sewage, out of the 88 European cities surveyed. The city came in second place for MDMA as well. Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, and Rotterdam ranked third to fifth place for cocaine use, after Antwerp and Tarragona. 

Cocaine is the most popular drug in Amsterdam, ranking third, based on the sewage samples that were collected. Some results were surprising. Leeuwarden’s drug use, for instance, is surprisingly high, NRC reports.

Leeuwarden came third and Amsterdam fourth in terms of cannabis use. Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Utrecht are all in the top five for MDMA, while Leeuwarden came in seventh place.

“If you look at the demographic profile of Leeuwarden, it is not a city with many students or tourism,” says Trimbos researcher Laura Smit-Rigter, coordinator of the Drugs Information and Monitoring System. The drug residues measured in the city are very telling, she said. “In Leeuwarden it is on the high side, yes.”

Last October, Mayor Sybrand Buma (CDA) of Leeuwarden was shocked when he saw the figures on drug use in his city. He told Dutch outlet Omrop Fryslân, “These are things that I know as mayor, but if you look at everything together, you see how serious the situation is here in Leeuwarden.”

Trimbos researcher Laura Smit-Rigter revealed that she wants to be cautious, adding that Dutch cities are no different than any other large European cities. “Based on this measurement, you can see that Rotterdam has a clear metropolitan profile, just like Amsterdam and other major European cities. That involves some drug use.”

For Smit-Rigter, the drug residues in the wastewater are one of the pieces of the puzzle of drug use. “These figures tell us something about the total consumption. They say nothing about who the users are or how often they use. We also don’t know whether they are tourists, commuters, or residents of those cities.”

Dutch Cities and the Reasons Why Drug Use is High

More research is needed to paint a clearer picture before jumping to conclusions about Dutch cities.

“In-depth research is needed for a complete picture of drug use in Dutch cities,” said Ton Nabben, researcher and criminologist specializing in drug use among nightlife crowds and at-risk youth. Nabben follows the latest developments in drug use for platforms like the Jellinek prevention and Addiction Science Netherlands (VKN).

He does not immediately have a logical explanation for the sheer amount of drug residue in the Rotterdam sewers, leaving him at a loss for words. “I can’t place it. Rather, it raises more questions.”

Meanwhile, The Netherlands government confirmed that its pilot program was set to kick off December 15, 2023. “The most recent planning shows that two legal growers are expected to be ready for delivery to coffee shops in the fourth quarter of 2023,” the Dutch government wrote. “This is sufficient to start the start-up phase of the experiment in Breda and Tilburg. In this phase, participating coffee shops from these municipalities may offer both legally grown and tolerated products. The next two growers are expected to start supplying coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg in February 2024.” Breda and Tilburg are located in the southern part of the country, near the border of Belgium.

The Netherlands pilot program for cannabis could help reshape the country’s standing by providing regulated cannabis product instead of the legal gray area that dominates currently.

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Amsterdam, a city long associated with relaxed weed rules, has been left out of a pilot experiment with legal cannabis sales now underway in the Netherlands. In a vote last week in the Netherlands’ lower house of Parliament known as the Tweede Kamer, lawmakers excluded Amsterdam from a list of cities to be added to the European country’s experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation and distribution. The Tweede Kamer also voted against an attempt by conservative lawmakers to halt the experiment, which will be expanded this summer to 10 cities across the Netherlands.

The experiment launched late last year in the Dutch cities of Breda and Tilburg. Under the pilot program, which will soon be launched in eight more cities, the government is regulating the cultivation and sale of recreational cannabis. 

Although the Netherlands in general and Amsterdam in particular are known for a pragmatically tolerant outlook on weed, cannabis is still illegal nationwide. Despite the prohibition, cannabis is easily available at so-called coffeeshops, which offer a range of weed products including flowers, joints and hash to adult customers. The coffee shops, which number approximately 565 nationwide, are supplied by underground growers who are generally allowed to operate without government interference.

Many government officials are concerned, however, that organized crime groups have taken over cultivation of much of the weed that ends up in coffeeshops in the Netherlands. This concern led to the country’s first experiment with regulated adult-use cannabis cultivation and distribution. 

The experiment began in December and is being rolled out in select municipalities under what the government calls a “closed coffeeshop chain experiment.” The initial phase of the experiment is expected to extend for six months in as many as 11 cities.

“During the startup phase, growers, coffeeshop owners, transporters and supervisors will gain experience with the supply and sale of regulated cannabis and its supervision, secure transport and the use of the track and trace system,” the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport said in a statement, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Later this year, the Netherlands’ experiment with regulated cannabis will be expanded to the cities of Almere, Arnhem, Groningen, Heerlen, Voorne aan Zee (formerly named Hellevoetsluis), Maastricht, Nijmegen and Zaanstad. City leaders in Amsterdam hoped to join the experiment, despite some claims that doing so would make it easier for underage youth to get weed.

“The experiment will not make access to drugs easier for young people. It just means that the production and distribution will be removed from criminals” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema told the publication NL Times, according to a report from MJBizDaily.

“This actually protects public health and facilitates enforcement policy. If you want to control cannabis use better, you must also check the ‘back door.’”

Amsterdam’s bid to be included in the experiment was denied by a March 5 vote by the Tweede Kamer. While the proposal had the support of the Netherlands left-wing and centrist parties, conservatives in the far-right Christian SGP and the far-right nationalist PVV political parties defeated the bid by a vote of 78-72, according to a report from Forbes.

Amsterdam Exclusion ‘No Surprise’

The exclusion of Amsterdam from the cannabis legalization experiment was not unexpected, says Jason Adelstone, a senior associate attorney at the cannabis law firm Vicente LLP, where he focuses on federal and international policy.

“I am not surprised that members of the Netherlands Parliament opposed the proposal for allowing Amsterdam to join the Dutch marijuana experiment,” Adelstone writes in an email to High Times. “With the far-right nationalist PVV party being the largest party in the Tweede Kamer, expanding the marijuana pilot program to include Amsterdam was a difficult proposition. Thankfully, those opposed to the marijuana pilot program didn’t have enough support to pause or completely stop the program altogether.”

Michael Sassano, founder, chairman and CEO of Somai Pharmaceuticals, a Lisbon-based manufacturer of therapeutic cannabis products, agrees that there “is no surprise that Amsterdam was ‘excluded’ from the program.” 

“The reality is that the Amsterdam coffee shop owners are very happy with their supply agreements both in quality and pricing,” Sassano said in a statement to High Times. “Most coffee shop owners understand that it will take some time for the legal Grow’s to get up to the current quality standards, and also the price will be higher. As the Netherlands progresses, going to a legal market for the entire country will be inevitable but it takes time and infrastructure to achieve this goal.”

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The Mayor of Amsterdam wants to legalize and regulate the sale, possession and use of cocaine. 

In an interview with Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad, Mayor Femke Halsema very strongly voiced her opinion on drug prohibition and how the decriminalization and legal sale of drugs like cocaine would take power away from organized crime groups who threaten the safety and stability of Amsterdam. 

“We have handed the market to unscrupulous criminals. They earn billions. And in the meantime, the war on drugs is disrupting entire countries, causing countless victims and strengthening the criminal business model,” Mayor Halsema said. 

Indeed Dutch Customs has recently released a report which supported the notion that organized crime surrounding cocaine trafficking is on the rise in Europe. Dutch Customs seized over 60,000 kilograms of cocaine in 2023 and 51,000 kilograms in 2022. Mayor Halsema has arranged a public debate on the matter which has been scheduled for January 26 in Amsterdam.

Cocaine seizures around Europe have followed the same trend with hundreds of metric tonnes seized around the EU year after year. Many reports have attested that the average price of European cocaine has been cut almost in half and the UN reported in March of last year that cocaine production was at an all time high. 

“Let us conclude that hundreds of years of discouragement and repression have achieved very little,” Halsema said to Financieele Dagblad. “Apparently people have a need for stimulants. There is a market for that.”

Mayor Halsema has been a vocal advocate for change in the City of Amsterdam since her appointment to the role in 2018. She wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian earlier this month in which she expressed that the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state if steps are not taken to reign in organized crime. 

“The widespread use of drugs is integrated into society. The market is enormous. But there are risks to public health and then you should not leave the market to criminals,” Mayor Halsema said to Financieele Dagblad. “Abusing drugs can have serious consequences. But often the risks are exaggerated. Cocaine, for example, is less harmful than alcohol. People make their own choices.”

Mayor Halsema also told Bloomberg in July of 2022 that she would be taking steps to cut back on problematic forms of tourism post-COVID. She intimated that Amsterdam needed to pull back from the reputation it has garnered as a sort of safe haven for ne’er do wells who came to her city to take a “vacation from morals.”

“In Amsterdam, there’s a state of mind of tolerance. We always argue that cannabis should be legalized and prostitution shouldn’t be criminalized. That is also a part of Amsterdam’s history, a history that we’re very proud of,” Mayor Halsema said to Bloomberg. “But drug culture and prostitution have been internationally commercialized. That is not the way it was intended. We should correct the way we advertised the city in the last 15 years.”

This may seem a bit disconnected for a Mayor advocating for legal cocaine sales but from a harm reduction perspective, it makes sense. Mayor Halsema likened it to Amsterdam’s famous red light district which from her perspective is there to provide safety and security to sex workers who, as she puts it, will always be there to serve customers so long as there is a demand for sex work. 

The same can be said of cocaine sales. A 2023 report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that cocaine was the second most commonly abused drug in Europe next to cannabis and cocaine seizures in major seaports around the continent have consistently risen every year since 2016. A survey found that almost 2.3 million Europeans between the ages of 15 and 34 had used cocaine in the preceding year.

These record increases in use and trafficking led Switzerland to recently open discussions to consider the launch of a pilot program for adult-use recreational cocaine sales in their capital city of Bern. Mayor Halsema appears to have followed suit by doubling down on what she considered to be a common sense approach to drug policy. 

“What the Netherlands’ problems reveal is the need for a global shift in the current approach. It’s not a matter of retracting our user-centred policy, but rather advocating for international recognition that the war on drugs is counterproductive,” Mayor Halsema wrote to the Guardian. “The prohibition of drugs is enshrined in international treaties that limit the space for national drug policies, meaning we will have to forge new international alliances that prioritise health and safety over punitive measures.”

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Gezellig is a fantastic Dutch word that encompasses a whole mood and defies translation. I think it means a combination of things: the warm feeling of belonging, being in the right place at the perfect time, surrounded by the most genial company. You hear the word a lot in Amsterdam; the concept of gezellig is at the heart of Dutch culture. Finding the sweet moment, relaxing into it, being as cozy and comfortable as possible… it’s a prescription for any stressed-out modern soul.

Factor in the world’s best hash and cannabis, set against the twinkly Advent-calendar beauty of the “Venice of the North,” and you’re in absolute heaven. Every time I’ve visited Amsterdam, I’ve experienced this untranslatable feeling. It’s potent stuff—a swirl of strong coffee and ice-cold foamy glasses of beer, bicycle bells dinging, and rose-ringed parakeets flitting through the Vondelpark in late-afternoon sunshine, all suffused by the sweet aromas of weed and hash.

When I booked a trip to Amsterdam last summer while dreaming of my previous hazy visits, I considered the perils of pining for bygone days. To quote author Brené Brown, “Nostalgia is… a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.” This would be my first trip to the Netherlands in almost a decade, and I was curious to see how the city’s legendary cannabis culture had evolved—or, perhaps, declined, with Barcelona’s rise to prominence as a new European weed capital.

In 2013, I worked the 26th Annual Amsterdam High Times Cannabis Cup during a long November week that lives in my head as a series of frosty snapshots. I judged the Seed Company Sativa category and was a live wire for five straight days as I sampled 21 strains from legendary outfits like Elemental Seeds, Reserva Privada, and Karma Genetics. That year’s winners were genetic heavyweights Tangie, Sour Power, and a super-tasty Sour Diesel cross called Headbanger.

Dutch authorities shut down the Cannabis Cup Expo at the last minute that year, and the High Times staff had to scramble to keep vendors and attendees happy. I remember a lot of long, chilly walks along glittering canals, shuttling back and forth to shows at the Melkweg from coffeeshops that had entered the competition. My judges’ kit powered me through it all like a little weed jetpack, especially on the night my phone died, and I got hopelessly lost. Fortunately, I somehow found my way to the judges’ dinner, where I was enveloped in a cloud of good cheer and great smoke. Gezellig!

This time around, my travel companion and I had no plans beyond eating, smoking, and visiting museums for three days to unwind after a few weeks in the U.K. Our train from London pulled into Amsterdam Central Station at 4:20 p.m. We were in the flow. We dropped our bags at our hotel and headed right for the iconic coffeeshop Green House in the area known as De Wallen, or the red light district.

We pulled up as the sky was darkening into evening shades of purple. The neon sign in the window cast an amber glow over the scene humming in the coffeeshop. It was cinematic and gorgeous, and it smelled great. A laughing girl bumped into me on her way out as we ducked inside. I could feel the days I’d spent in London melting off me, almost hissing as they swirled away. We were in the right place at the right moment. What a relief. My memories of Amsterdam weren’t nostalgic; this was now.

Inside the glow of Green House, we were greeted by Joa Helms, the CEO of the Green House Seed Company. He gestured to the menu on the wall illuminated behind the busy budtenders and asked what we wanted to sample. “Super Lemon Haze, of course,” Helms said with a grin, “and how about some Ztrawberry?” We gratefully—almost wordlessly, I think—sank into a booth next to the window with the two packets of flower he handed us, along with rolling papers and a grinder. “It’s made from hemp,” Helms said of the grinder, as he departed into the night with a friendly wave, leaving us with our treasures.

Green House Seed Company has won countless awards for legendary strains like White Widow and Super Silver Haze, as well as for Super Silver’s progeny, Super Lemon Haze, which won back-to-back Cannabis Cups in 2008 and 2009. As my friend and I stuck our noses into the bags of flower to determine which way our evening would bend, one sniff of Super Lemon Haze was all we needed to know how it was going to go. Roll up, smoke, relax, repeat.

We floated out of Green House into the cool September night after a while, turning left, right, and left again on our evening adventure. We babbled through our Haze-y buzz as we passed by sex workers posing in windows, their neon lingerie popping under black lights with drapes barely concealing rudimentary beds just behind them. Moving through a crush of tourists with unclothed bodies on display for the gawking masses was elemental and deeply weird, but it also felt exactly right because I knew this would likely be the last time we’d see De Wallen like this.

In a move billed as an antidote to the effects of hedonistic tourism, the Dutch government has hatched a plan to relocate the red light district to the outskirts of town. The proposal would shut down sex workers’ windows in an attempt to reset the city as a family-friendly destination. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema is leading the charge to redefine the city’s reputation—and she also wants to ban non-residents in coffeeshops by enforcing a national residents-only rule. Halsema says that banning tourists from coffeeshops is unavoidable in order to tackle tourist nuisances that arise from the “soft drug” sector—i.e. cannabis.

My friend and I chatted about the complicated nature of sex work and drug culture as we strolled along the canals. Prostitution in Amsterdam has been legal and regulated since 2000. Cannabis, however, has never been legal in the Netherlands—the government’s policies tolerate the possession and sale of small quantities of weed and psilocybin, and it’s decriminalized for personal use, but it’s not legal. And for decades, that was just fine, until conservatives like Halsema decided it wasn’t. The tide has turned for the counterculture in Amsterdam as politicians debate about what’s best for the city. It’s certainly the end of an era.

As we finally made our way back to our hotel, my buzz was wearing thin, but my bud stopped to roll up some Ztrawberry, popping open our second fragrant pouch. We perched next to each other on the edge of a canal barge, watched by a well-fed cat who sat cleaning its puffy tail with an eye on us. I was pretty faded after our glowy Super Lemon Haze’d evening, and I was ready to call it quits. But the click of my friend’s lighter and the pass of a joint turned it all around. 

Ztrawberry is a Runtz x A.M.S. cross—it’s got a heavy kick from its Gelato parent sweetness, which fades to a perfect, heady buzz. Holy smokes, I thought, sitting on the edge of the canal barge as I gazed back at the Dutch cat. OK, you are NOT TIRED. You feel great. You feel clear and calm, and in the perfect state of being… oh, wait, this is… yes, it’s gezellig.

This article was originally published in the January 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom last week vetoed a bill that would have allowed cannabis cafes to offer weed, food and beverages to patrons at licensed establishments reminiscent of the famed coffee shops in Amsterdam. The measure, Assembly Bill 374 (AB 374), was passed by the California legislature last month after being introduced earlier this year by Democratic Assemblymember Matt Haney.

Under current California law, cannabis consumption lounges cannot sell freshly prepared food to their patrons. A rule change adopted in November of last year allows lounges to offer prepackaged food and beverages and for customers to bring their own freshly prepared items on a limited basis, but the businesses themselves are denied the opportunity to serve most non-infused products to their customers.

Haney’s bill would have allowed California’s cannabis consumption lounges to sell freshly prepared food and drinks and to host live entertainment events. In the Netherlands, more than 700 cannabis cafes, often referred to as coffee shops, draw 1.5 million visitors per year, according to information from Haney’s office. Allowing the state’s consumption lounges to operate under a similar business model would give the businesses new economic opportunities and could serve as a draw for tourists and locals to visit struggling downtown business districts.

“Lots of people want to enjoy legal cannabis in the company of others. And many people want to do that while sipping coffee, eating a scone, or listening to music,” Haney said in a statement. “There’s absolutely no good reason from an economic, health, or safety standpoint that the state should make that illegal. If an authorized cannabis retail store wants to also sell a cup of coffee and a sandwich, we should allow cities to make that possible and stop holding back these small businesses.”

But on Saturday, Newsom vetoed AB 374, although the governor said he appreciates “the author’s intent to provide cannabis retailers with increased business opportunities and an avenue to attract new customers.” In his veto message, Newsom said he was concerned that the bill conflicted with California legislation to provide a smoke-free workplace for all workers.

“Protecting the health and safety of workers is paramount. I encourage the author to address this concern in subsequent legislation,” the governor added. “For this reason, I cannot sign this bill.”

Sponsor Promises New Bill Next Year

After Newsom vetoed the bill, Haney decried the move in a statement on social media, saying that the bill is needed to help support California’s regulated cannabis industry, which continues to face challenges including high costs and competition from the state’s pervasive unlicensed operators.

“The bill was widely seen as an attempt to level the playing field for the highly taxed and regulated legal cannabis industry that is being forced to compete in California with a thriving cannabis black market,” Haney said. “The illegal sale of cannabis is extremely profitable in California with illegal sellers choosing to simply ignore costly regulations, product testing, permitting, and taxation. California’s legal cannabis sales reached $4 billion in 2020, while illegal sales are believed to have surpassed $8 billion that same year.”

Haney added that voters have already authorized smoking in the businesses covered by the bill and vowed to draft new legislation to legalize cannabis cafes in the next legislative session.

“The voters of California have already decided to legalize the smoking of cannabis in public dispensaries. AB 374 just allows businesses where smoking is already happening to sell coffee and food and hold live shows,” Haney wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “I appreciate and respect the Governor’s concerns about worker’s health. And I’m looking forward to working closely with his office and with labor leaders to make sure we get this right when I introduce the bill again next year.”

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The Netherlands government recently confirmed that it plans to start its pilot program on December 15 later this year. “The most recent planning shows that two legal growers are expected to be ready for delivery to coffee shops in the fourth quarter of 2023,” the Dutch government wrote. “This is sufficient to start the start-up phase of the experiment in Breda and Tilburg. In this phase, participating coffee shops from these municipalities may offer both legally grown and tolerated products. The next two growers are expected to start supplying coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg in February 2024.” Breda and Tilburg are located in the southern part of the country, near the border of Belgium.

The timeline for this program begins with a “start-up phase” that will last up to six months. “The initiative for the start-up phase was introduced by the mayors of Breda and Tilburg and embraced by Minister Ernst Kuipers of Health, Welfare and Sport and Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security as an opportunity to start the experiment on a small scale around a legalized production and sales chain,” the government wrote.

The start-up phase is described as a sort of warm up time frame for businesses to adjust to the program, however the government notes that if “public order or safety is seriously threatened,” then they will stop the program prematurely. “The insights will be shared with all participating municipalities and used to improve processes and systems for a smooth transition phase,” the government stated.

After the start-up period ends, then the “transition phase” begins. “It is expected that all participating municipalities will be able to start the transition phase at the earliest at the end of the first quarter of 2024,” the government wrote. “In this transition phase, coffee shops in the participating municipalities may offer regulated products in addition to tolerated products.”

According to Forbes, there will be a six-week period where coffee shops can continue to obtain their cannabis products from illegal sources “while the new legal suppliers are phased in.” Following the transition phase, the experimental phase will begin. “From that moment on, participating coffee shop owners may only sell regulated cannabis,” the government added.

The Netherlands announced its plans for the pilot program years ago, and was intended to begin in 2020, but was delayed until 2022. In March 2022, the program received another delay, expecting the program to begin in Q2 2023. “Unfortunately, it has now become apparent that starting in 2022 is no longer realistic,” the letter stated last year. “The selection procedure of the remaining growers is taking longer than expected, and some growers are having trouble securing a location.”

Breda Mayor Paul Depla explained his disappointment that the program continued to be delayed. “It is clear that everyone who is in favor of the cannabis test is disappointed,” said Depla. Tilburg Mayor Theo Weterings also echoed his frustration. “Again delay—how much more can you delay. We expect that some MPs will now be scratching their heads, wondering: what is happening here?”

The Netherlands has never legalized cannabis, although it has long been associated with its “soft drugs” policy, called gedoogbeleid, which allows cannabis business owners to sell their product at coffee shops without being prosecuted. “Dutch coffeeshop policy has long been a subject of public debate. At the heart of the debate is the ambiguous status of cannabis: while the sale and use of cannabis for recreational purposes are tolerated, production and distribution are strictly prohibited,” the Netherlands government stated. “Under the current policy of toleration, selling and using are still criminal offences under Dutch law, but the authorities choose not to pursue or prosecute lawbreakers.”

Due to this policy, the number of coffee shops increased drastically. In 2007, data from Statista shared that an estimated 229 coffee shops were operating within the city of Amsterdam. The most recent data shows that 166 shops were operating, as of 2020. The Netherland government estimates that 570 coffee shops operate across the country’s 102 municipalities.

Amsterdam banned public consumption of cannabis in April 2018, and more recently a ban was also implemented in the Red Light District in May. The Amsterdam City Council approved the ban earlier in 2023. “Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets,” the city council explained. “Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable.” The city council added that the ban would “reduce nuisance.”

The Netherlands isn’t the only country to start implementing cannabis pilot programs. Fellow European Union (EU) country of Luxembourg, which recently legalized cannabis for personal use in June, began a pilot program to test out legal access to cannabis. Switzerland, which is not a part of the EU, began its own cannabis pilot program in January 2023.

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The city of Amsterdam, New York owes nearly $200,000 after firing a medical marijuana patient for failing a drug screening for cannabis, a jury decided in a legal action filed by the dismissed city worker. The jury found that the city had discriminated against Thomas Apholz, a wastewater treatment plant worker who was suspended in February 2020 and later fired after testing positive for marijuana.

“They couldn’t fire him fast enough,” Kevin A. Luibrand, Apholz’s attorney told the Times-Union. “They gave him a termination letter on a Monday that fired him the prior Sunday so he couldn’t present his prescription card.”

New York legalized the medical use of marijuana in 2014 with the passage of the Compassionate Care Act, which went into effect in 2016. State law also grants registered medical marijuana patients disability status, which affords protection from employment discrimination for using cannabis.

Patient Fired After Failed Drug Screening

In 2017, Apholz tested positive for cannabis in a random drug screening but was allowed to keep his job under a “last chance agreement” he signed with the city. Under the terms of the agreement, he was subject to termination for future violations of the city’s drug policies.

Apholz tested positive for cannabis in a random drug screening again in 2020 and was subsequently suspended and eventually fired. He then filed suit in state Supreme Court in Montgomery County, alleging unlawful employment discrimination and failure to accommodate his disability as required by the New York Humans Rights Law.

A year before the second positive drug screening, Apholz had obtained a medical marijuana recommendation for lower back pain. In a five-day trial before Judge Rebecca Slezak, Apholz’s attorneys noted that he only used cannabis in capsule form “in the evening at home when his pain was at its worst” and had never used medical marijuana at work. According to court records, Apholz notified “agents” of the city that he was a certified patient in the state Medical Marijuana Program and had a valid Department of Health certification for a medical marijuana prescription at the time of the drug screening.

The city “was made aware of plaintiff’s prescription multiple times, and therefore his disability, before he was terminated,” court filings state. “Defendant has presented no evidence that plaintiff’s use of marijuana impacted his ability to complete his job duties in any way.”

“The evidence indicates that plaintiff was an effective worker while having his marijuana prescription, and that he can perform his job safely and satisfactorily, and defendant has failed to provide any evidence on the record that plaintiff’s use of marijuana has ever negatively impacted his job performance or placed anyone in danger,” court filings state.

Attorneys for the city argued that Apholz had not properly notified the city’s employee relations director about his disability and medical marijuana prescription as required by city policy. Instead, the city maintained that Apholz had notified city engineer Mike Clark of his medical marijuana registration on March 5, 2020, after he had already been suspended for the second failed drug screening. Additionally, the city’s attorneys claimed that Apholz never presented any affirmation the prescription would not interfere with his performance of his “safety sensitive position” involving the use of large machinery and handling hazardous chemicals.

Jury Finds In Patients’ Favor

The jury reached its verdict on June 30, finding that the city discriminated against Apholz for using medical marijuana and awarding him a judgment of $191,762. He is also eligible to request the judge to order reinstatement to his job and for the city to pay his legal fees.

“The jury found that senior Amsterdam city officials refused to provide Mr. Apholz an accommodation for his medical condition after he informed the city that he had a medical marijuana prescription following a random drug test, and summarily fired him on March 16, 2020 without a civil service hearing and without having any discussions with him about his medical condition,” according to a statement from Luibrand quoted by The Daily Gazette.

Aaron Bloom, the CEO of DocMJ, a medical marijuana physician practice that provides compassionate care to patients, says that the jury’s verdict underscores the importance of laws that protect medical cannabis patients.
“Respecting patients’ medical cannabis rights, particularly in the workplace, is of utmost importance. It is crucial to acknowledge the legitimacy of medical cannabis as a therapeutic option and ensure that patients who rely on it for their well-being are treated with fairness and understanding,” Bloom writes in an email to High Times. “Medical cannabis patients also have a duty to not show up for work under the influence of cannabis in a manner that violates workplace safety. By providing appropriate accommodations and respecting the rights of employees with valid medical cannabis prescriptions, we can create an environment that promotes inclusivity and supports individuals in managing their health conditions effectively.”

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A new era kicked off in Amsterdam’s Red Light District on Thursday, with a ban on smoking cannabis on the streets officially taking effect.

The ban is part of a city-wide effort, pushed by Mayor Femke Halsema, to make the famous area more hospitable to its residents and workers.

According to Reuters, signs “were posted in the canal-lined neighbourhood known for its brothels, sex clubs and marijuana cafes, which attract millions of tourists a year, but are a nuisance to residents.”

Those found in violation of the new law will face a €100 (or about $110) fine.

The law was proposed earlier this year by the Amsterdam city council.

“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the city council said in a statement at the time.

“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council added.

The city council gave final approval to the proposal earlier this month, setting the stage for Thursday.

According to Reuters, people “will still be allowed to smoke inside and on the terraces of coffee shops selling marijuana and hash in the district and other parts of the city.” 

The pot smoking ban is part of an effort led by Halsema, Amsterdam’s first female mayor, to improve conditions in the Red Light District. 

CNN reported in 2019 that Halsema had “presented four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district.” 

“Four scenarios have been proposed for discussion including closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker “hotel” being created,” according to CNN. The plans aim to protect sex workers from gawking tourists and their camera phones, and also to combat a rise in abuses such as human trafficking. The four proposals will be discussed with sex workers, residents and businesses in July, before being taken to the city council in September. The plans will ultimately be developed into a new policy on sex work, the mayor’s office confirmed.”

The Red Light District, known locally in Amsterdam as the De Wallen neighborhood, has long been a popular destination for tourists visiting the city. 

CNN reported earlier this year that it is “estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district.”

“City officials want the De Wallen neighborhood, as the district is known in Dutch, to draw visitors who can appreciate its unique heritage, architecture and culture rather than sex and drugs,” CNN reported at the time. Over the past few years, there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image.

In 2020, guided tours were prohibited from passing sex workers’ windows, and there was talk of moving the window brothels to a neighborhood outside of the city center—conversations that continue to this day.”

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A new ordinance banning cannabis use on the streets in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is slated to take effect later this month. 

The ban, officially approved by Amsterdam’s city council last week, will “come into effect from May 25 and will be enforced by police and local officials,” according to Bloomberg, which noted that violation of the new law will result in a €100 (or $109) fine.

The law was offered up by the Amsterdam city council in February, with local officials decrying the “nuisance” and “grim” atmosphere of the famous district at night.

“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the city council said in a statement at the time.

“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council continued.

CNN reported at the time that if the outdoor smoking ban failed to achieve the desired results, the “municipality said it would also consider banning take-out purchases of soft drugs at certain times, and banning smoking marijuana at coffee shops’ outdoor seating areas.”

“It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district,” according to CNN. “City officials want the De Wallen neighborhood, as the district is known in Dutch, to draw visitors who can appreciate its unique heritage, architecture and culture rather than sex and drugs. Over the past few years, there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image.

In 2020, guided tours were prohibited from passing sex workers’ windows, and there was talk of moving the window brothels to a neighborhood outside of the city center—conversations that continue to this day.” 

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has prioritized cleaning up the Red Light District since becoming mayor nearly five years ago.

In 2019, Halsema, who is Amsterdam’s first female mayor, “presented four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district,” CNN reported at the time.

“For many visitors, the sex workers have become no more than an attraction to look at. In some cases this is accompanied by disruptive behavior and a disrespectful attitude to the sex workers in the windows,” Halsema’s office said, as quoted by CNN, which outlined some of the mayor’s proposed reforms:

“Four scenarios have been proposed for discussion including closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker “hotel” being created. The plans aim to protect sex workers from gawking tourists and their camera phones, and also to combat a rise in abuses such as human trafficking. The four proposals will be discussed with sex workers, residents and businesses in July, before being taken to the city council in September. The plans will ultimately be developed into a new policy on sex work, the mayor’s office confirmed.”

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For many tourists, Amsterdam’s red light district has long been a destination to escape the laws and restrictions of their normal lives, a place where anything goes. But the people who live there, it seems, are ready to chill out.

Amsterdam’s city council said last Thursday that it will ban cannabis use on the streets of the red light district, citing the “nuisance” and “grim” atmosphere that typifies the area in the evening hours. 

The officials said that they intend for the rule to take effect in mid-May.

“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the council said in a statement on Thursday. 

“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council added.

As Reuters noted, the move is “part of a campaign by Amsterdam’s first female mayor, Femke Halsema, to make the neighbourhood more liveable for residents.”

According to CNN, “there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image” in recent years, including a rule that prohibited guided tours from passing by sex workers’ windows.

Since she became mayor of the Dutch capital in 2018, Halsema has made reform of the city’s red light district a priority.

In 2019, Halsema presented “four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district,” CNN reported at the time, which included “closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker ‘hotel’ being created.”

“For many visitors, the sex workers have become no more than an attraction to look at. In some cases this is accompanied by disruptive behavior and a disrespectful attitude to the sex workers in the windows,” the mayor’s office said in a statement at the time, as quoted by CNN.

In addition to the proposed smoking ban announced on Thursday the Amsterdam city council said that one “of the measures that has already been decided on is to have catering establishments and sex establishments with a catering license close their doors at 02:00 on Fridays and Saturdays,” as opposed to the current closing time of 3 or 4 a.m.

“Prostitution businesses may then remain open until 3 a.m. Now it is until 6:00 a.m.,” the council said. “To spread the crowds better, no new visitors are allowed in after 1:00 a.m. We also want to close the terraces at 1:00 a.m. in the summer months. That is now 2:00 a.m.”

The council also said that the sale of alcohol by shops, liquor stores and cafeterias will continue to be prohibited “from Thursday to Sunday from 4 p.m.”

According to CNN, it is “estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district,” which the Dutch commonly refer to as the De Wallen neighborhood.

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