Amsterdam is recognized for its popular "coffee shops" where consumers can purchase and use cannabis for their individual personal use. For this purpose, the capital and the Netherlands as a whole have a story with the drug, which can be followed back to 1953. This was when the Opium Act was changed to include cannabis on the list of drugs facing criminal offenses.

Dutch authorities had initially replied repressively, due to the growth of psychoactive drugs in the 1960s, but they soon evolved when changing the Opium Act in 1976, which launched the national policy of tolerance for small scale use of marijuana.

In 1976, the Dutch administration amended the Opium Act to discriminate in drugs lists, those that present "an unacceptable risk (heroin, cocaine, and LSD)," and cannabis products. At this point in history, the initial coffee shop, The Bulldog, had opened the previous year, so this new amendment only encouraged more coffee shops to open. 

By early 1990s, the number of coffeeshops extended to 1,500, so the government began making them by establishing strict rules including no advertising, no harsh drugs, no access to people under the age of 18, no sales in over five grams per person on a given day, and no making public trouble.