Coffeeshops in Amsterdam: rules, public-use ban and opening hours

Amsterdam had 167 tolerated coffeeshopsat the end of 2024, unchanged for five years and the densest concentration in the country — one for every 5,590 inhabitants. This page sets out the city's rules, including the public-use ban in force since May 2023.

Tolerated, not licensed

No licence to sell cannabis exists here either. A coffeeshop sits on the mayor's gedooglijstof tolerated addresses and must meet the AHOJGI criteria of the OM's Aanwijzing Opiumwet: no advertising, no hard drugs, no nuisance, no minors, at most 5 grams per buyer per day and a stock of at most 500 grams. A closure under article 13b Opiumwet can strike the address from that list.

Using cannabis in public: banned in a designated area

Since 25 May 2023, APV article 2.7(4) bans the use of List II substances on the street and in other public places within the area designated in annex 1 of the by-law. It is a bounded area rather than a city-wide rule as in Rotterdam, and the boundary is a map rather than a list of streets, so we name none. Paragraph 5 makes the exception Rotterdam's text lacks: the ban does not apply to premises holding the mayor's tolerance declaration, so use inside a coffeeshop and on its licensed terrace remains possible. The council's explanatory note adds that the area can be extended.

Opening hours

Coffeeshops close at 01:00, every day of the week, set through the operating permit; the 2025 hospitality policy keeps that unchanged.

Where a coffeeshop may sit

On relocation: at least 250 metres walking distance from another coffeeshop.
At least 250 metres walking distance from a secondary or vocational school.
Not next to a youth centre or a public children's playground.
Relocating into or within the Centrum district is in principle not possible.
No terrace permit is granted at a new location.

Staff must have taken the city's coffeeshop hospitality course, and cannabis taken away must be handed over with a product information leaflet.

The residency criterion

The I-criterion is national policy and enforcement is a local decision. Amsterdam's enforcement rules name the AHOJG criteria without the I in their operative text while a footnote in the same document recites the full AHOJGI list, so the question is not settled and we make no claim either way. What is settled: of 103 coffeeshop municipalities, two enforced the criterion with high priority at the end of 2024.

Amsterdam is not in the closed-chain experiment

The bill that would have added an eleventh municipality — the route for Amsterdam-Oost — was rejected by the Tweede Kamer on 5 March 2024, and neither the act nor the decree names Amsterdam. Its coffeeshops therefore buy outside any regulated chain: the front door is tolerated, the back door is not.

See all 137 coffeeshops in Amsterdam →

Sources

This is not legal advice. ZazaMap sells nothing, brokers nothing and advertises no individual business.