The mayor is taking steps to change Amsterdam's image as the international cannabis capital. Coffeeshops attracted an estimated 1.5 million tourist visits a month before the pandemic, and the new policy is intended to draw a line in the sand. With the support of police and judicial authorities, Halsema plans to regulate the so-called “back door”, meaning the coffeeshops’ suppliers, and cut the number of people coming in through the front door by imposing a residence requirement. “We’re absolutely not working towards a cannabis-free Amsterdam,” Halsema says. “But there’s also huge demand to get tourism under control. Our freedom shouldn’t be a licence for big groups of youngsters to throw up in the canals because they’ve smoked and drunk too much.”