As of April 1, 2007, Dutch coffeeshops can no longer sell alcohol.  This covers all coffeeshops that sell cannabis products.  Awhile ago Dutch coffeeshop owners who had licenses to sell both alcohol and marijuana were offered a choice: they could choose to keep one of those licenses.  So most dropped the alcohol, although a few decided to stay open as a pub.

This means you can no longer purchase cannabis, smoke it and drink a beer in the same location.  Some coffeeshops have already dealt with this by owning a nearby pub where no cannabis is sold, but patrons can buy their ganja nearby and smoke it in the pub.

It’s a bit hard to understand why this change was necessary, as there were so few problems with those coffeeshops that also sold booze, as they tended to be the most popular and most profitable.  Looks like they’ll have far fewer patrons who stick around after a purchase.

We’re still wondering if they’ll ever enforce the EU’s workplace no smoking laws in Amsterdam Coffeeshops.  Apparently the coffeeshops (and Dutch pubs) have been given some kind of exemption for now.