One can find a 'coffee shop' in nearly any city in the Netherlands. The first was Mellow Yellow in Amsterdam. They opened in 1972. From that point the formula they had, (by selling the cannabis themselves instead of the 60s, dealers hanging around in a bar who would often sell hard drugs as well), spread slowly around the Netherlands into the coffee shop culture we have today. Couple of years later in '75 our government started decriminalizing soft drugs. Early 80s a tolerance policy was set up, so coffee shops were still illegal, but could go about their busyness freely if no involvement with selling hard drugs.