Has the no-smoking law closed any the coffeeshops themselves?
No, fortunately. Several government officials have addressed this and have said they have no intention of using this new law to close the coffeeshops, but at the same time there is no guarantee the coffeeshops will be this way forever. The city frequently acknowledges that they think having the coffeeshops does more good than harm, but on the other hand they have tightened restrictions on them a few times in recent years. And the planned major clean-up of the Red Light District will certainly end up shutting the doors of at least a few shops in that area over the next few years. But with regard to the July 2008 no-smoking law, since these coffeeshops exist as places where people go to smoke, officials are less concerned about a minority of smokers affecting a majority non-smokers, which is the case everywhere else. The law states that employees must be able to work in a smoke-free zone, but this only applies to tobacco smoke and not cannabis smoke. As long as customers don’t mix tobacc
