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Why Amsterdam’s oldest cannabis 'coffeeshop' has been forced to close
When the clocks struck midnight on New Year’s Eve they not only marked the arrival of 2017 but also sounded the death knell for the oldest coffeeshop in Amsterdam, Mellow Yellow, which has closed after half a century in business.
While the rest of the Dutch capital ushered in the new year with fizz and fireworks, Mellow Yellow’s owner, Johnny Petram, fought back tears as he pulled the shutters down on his cannabis cafe for the last time.
“I tried to make the best of it but it was the worst day of my life,” he said. “Mellow Yellow was the oldest coffeeshop in Amsterdam and now it’s gone.”
Opened in 1967, Mellow Yellow found fertile ground in a grey area of Dutch drug law and has since blazed a trail for hundreds of other coffeeshops to follow. It became an institution, not just with locals but tourists too, who would queue patiently for the chance to smoke weed in the world’s first coffeeshop. It was, claimed the owner, a bastion of peace and inclusivity.
“I have Israelis and Palestinians in here smoking together,” Mr Petram told me, when I visited Mellow Yellow last month. “Even people who don’t smoke come here to have their photo taken. It’s part of the history of Amsterdam.”
Now it is history thanks to a government-backed scheme to shut down any coffeeshops within 250m of a school. Mellow Yellow is one of 28 establishments affected by the legislation, which the mayor’s office candidly admits will probably not stop young people from taking up smoking.
Nevertheless the local authorities are persisting with the policy as part of a deal with the national government that will exempt Amsterdam from enforcing the so-called Weed Pass, which prohibits non-Dutch nationals from frequenting coffeeshops.
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The Weed Pass has already been introduced to other parts of the Netherlands, but Amsterdam has hitherto resisted the scheme, arguing that it would lead to an explosion in street dealing.
“If we don’t strike a deal we would be forced to enforce the Weed Pass and then we will have big problems,” said Jasper Karman, the mayor’s spokesperson. “In this way we can protect the remaining 167 coffeeshops in Amsterdam.”
Mr Petram fought against Mellow Yellow’s closure in court, arguing the coffeeshop should stay open because the nearby school is a hairdressing academy where most students are 18 years old and therefore legally entitled to smoke. However, that futile legal battle, and the fact he will still have to pay €7,000 a month in rent on an empty building, has left him with no resources to fight on.
“The current location is not going to happen anymore,” concedes Mr Petram. “My focus is now on opening Mellow Yellow in another location. I’m going to make a plan and then I’m going to go to the mayor with it.”
Mr Petram can perhaps take some comfort from the fact that Mellow Yellow has a history of overcoming adversity. Indeed the previous incarnation of the coffeeshop, which was located in a former bakery in Weesperzijde, burned down in 1978 and could have been lost forever. However, it reopened shortly after on Vijzelstraat, near the Heineken Museum, and has remained there ever since.
“Now our licence has burned down,” said Mr Petram. “But I will keep on fighting to save the oldest coffeeshop in the world. I hope I can convince the mayor to let me reopen somewhere else.”
Amsterdam has lost roughly half of its coffeeshops in the last two decades and some commentators fear worse could be to come; the Netherlands goes to the polls this year and some worry a less liberal government could spell the end of cannabis cafes as we know them.
“Within five to ten years coffeeshops could be finished,” said August de Loor, founder of the Bond Van Cannabis Detaillisten (BCD) union for coffeeshop owners. “That’s my most negative scenario.”