Amsterdam has officially banned pot smoking in schools. Eberhard van der Laan, the mayor of Amsterdam made the ban the first in the Netherlands, reported the Associated Press.
Smoking pot in schools seems like something that would be obvious, but with the Netherland's drug policies with coffee shops surrounding the city, it's a ban that was perhaps needed where pot smoking isn't exactly legal but police can't prosecute for possession.
Iris Reshef, which is a spokesperson in Amsterdam said to the AP that schools there have forbidden pot smoking already but found it difficult to enforce.
She said, "It's not really what you have in mind as an educator, that children would be turning up for class stoned, or drunk either for that matter. But it has been a problem for some schools."
The Daily Mail reported that the ban came about after school's were complaining that students were coming to class high after smoking outside school grounds.
The ban will take effect on the first day of the new year on Jan. 1 with areas such as schools and playgrounds making marijuana smoking illegal.
Earlier this year the mayor decided to stop a proposed ban that would make coffee shops illegal for tourists. Van der Laan said that one in three tourists come to Amsterdam and try marijuana, reported the AP.
The government had planned to issue "weed passes" to residents only starting fro Jan 2013 which meant that only Dutch residents could buy cannibis, alienating a huge industry of marijuana tourism in the country.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
