Amsterdam Cannabis Tour: How Amsterdam Became the Cannabis Capital?

This free walking tour follows the surprising story of Amsterdam’s cannabis culture, from hemp and international trade to the counterculture of the 1960s and the rebellious Provo movement. We’ll explore how the heroin crisis changed the way Dutch policymakers thought about drugs, why harm reduction became so important, and how the Netherlands developed its distinctive policy of tolerance. 

Along the way, we’ll visit historical sites like the Old Harbour, the Oude Kerk, Nieuwmarkt, Zuiderkerk, and Oudemanhuispoort to discover Amsterdam's Cannabis culture and understand how coffee shops transformed a political experiment into a global cultural phenomenon. But the story doesn’t end there. We’ll also uncover the famous “backdoor dilemma”: how can cannabis be tolerated at the point of sale while its supply has historically remained illegal? 

By the end, you won’t just know what Amsterdam’s cannabis culture looks like. You’ll understand why it developed this way, what problems the Dutch were trying to solve, and why the debate is still far from over.