The American musician touring Europe was due to hold a concert in Manchester, England, when police reportedly discovered cannabis in her bags as she was preparing to leave the country.
Dutch police confirmed to ABC that they had “arrested a 41-year-old American woman at Schiphol airport because of possession of soft drugs,” but would not release a name.
“After consultation with the Public Prosecution Service, the suspect was fined and can continue her journey.”
Unfortunately she was not in time to make her concert, cancelling the show at the last minute with 20,000 attendees already in the venue.
“Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible,” concert promoter Live Nation said, adding the performance would be postponed.
The WAP star who was due in the UK went on a social media tirade, claiming that marijuana was found in some of her luggage and the luggage had been offloaded so her “pre-rolls” - a term for marijuana cigarette - could be weighed.
“This is Amsterdam btw, where weed is legal,” she mistakenly claimed.
This illustrates a commonly held myth among international visitors that cannabis is legal in the Netherlands. The unique “toleration policy” on “soft drugs” has helped establish a large drug tourism market, particularly in Amsterdam.
According to the Government of the Netherlands there is a policy not to prosecute some substances considered to be “less damaging” to focus on other policing issues.
“The sale of soft drugs in coffee shops is a criminal offence but the Public Prosecution Service does not prosecute coffee shops for this offence,” reads the official advice.
Members of the public with less than 5 grams of cannabis or with fewer than five planes are unable to be prosecuted under Dutch law.
However, this does not mean that it is legal.
In Amsterdam the sale of cannabis for personal consumption in small quantities is tolerated by the local authorities.
Since the 1976 Opium Act the “Gedoogbeleid” or tolerance policy has seen drugs tourism explode in parts of the Netherlands, particularly the coffee shops. According to the UN World Tourism Organisation more than a quarter of international tourists to Amsterdam (26 per cent) visited at least one dispensary shop.
But there is a sense that tolerance is wearing thin among some parts of the Netherlands.
The City of Amsterdam has made tighter rules in its battle with problem tourism, something mayor Femke Halsema links to the perceived tolerance for cannabis.
It’s added new laws which make it illegal to smoke cannabis on some streets in the Dutch capital along with other measures to combat problematic tourist behaviour, which local residents say was impacting quality of life.
Tourists caught smoking cannabis in the Reeperbahn red light district stand to be fined €140 ($250).
While relative to other European countries the Netherlands is still lenient towards cannabis use, there is one place where there is zero tolerance: the international border.
Royal Netherlands Marechaussee military police combats drug trafficking to and from the Netherlands, at borders and airports.
