Local laws that catch crew out in Amsterdam

Cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands. The government's position is that possessing, selling or producing drugs is against the law, and that the Public Prosecution Service does not prosecute for possession of small quantities of soft drugs for personal use. The tolerated ceiling is no more than 5 grams. The tolerance is a prosecution policy, not a permission.

Coffee shops sit under the same toleration rather than a licence to sell freely. They may not sell hard drugs, sell to minors, advertise, or sell more than 5 grams in a transaction. Since 2013 national policy limits them to residents of the Netherlands aged 18 or over, checked against identity documents, and municipalities determine whether coffee shops operate within their boundaries at all, and if so how many.

Amsterdam's by-law bans open use separately from national drug law. Article 2.7, paragraph 4 of the Algemene Plaatselijke Verordening prohibits using substances covered by article 3 of the Opium Act, the soft drugs list, or lookalike goods, on or beside the road and in other publicly accessible places within an area designated in the by-law's Annex 1. Paragraph 5 exempts licensed premises that also hold the mayor's toleration declaration for selling soft drugs. Buying inside a coffee shop does not entitle you to smoke it on the pavement outside. Annex 1 is published as a map rather than a street list, so check locally before you assume you are outside it.

Alcohol in public is controlled the same way. You must be 18 to have alcohol with you in the Netherlands. APV article 2.17 makes drinking in public an offence anywhere in the city when it comes with behaviour that disturbs public order, and separately lets the mayor designate roads and stretches of road where drinking, or carrying an opened bottle or can, is prohibited outright. Licensed terraces are carved out of that second ban.

Carry your passport. Police officers, public transport ticket inspectors and special enforcement officers may ask anyone aged 14 or over to identify themselves for traffic management, the maintenance of public order or the investigation of a criminal offence. An EU or EEA passport or identity card counts; a passport from anywhere else must carry a valid residence sticker. The fine at 16 or over is 100 euros, and failing to identify yourself risks being taken to a police station while they establish who you are.