Not according to right-wing Amsterdam politician and coffee shop owner Michael Veling.

"It is ridiculous to think that a smoking ban would be the end of coffee shops," he said.

Mixing cannabis with tobacco is popular throughout Europe, unlike the rest of the world where it is generally smoked pure.

The tobacco ban may now spur a switch to pipes or vapourisers such as the volcano that heats and vapourises the active ingreditents in cannabis, filling up a balloon that users inhale.

"Nearly all of our American customers do that anyway, using pipes or the volcano. On good days, when the shop is full of Americans, we sell 100 or 200 of these balloons," according to Veling.

Cannabis is formally banned in the Netherlands but buyers are allowed to have less than five grams of cannabis in their possession under a polcy of tolerance.

Licensed coffee shops that sell cannabis can keep stocks of up to 500 grams.

Although many coffee shop owners are worried about the upcoming ban, Veling is unconcerned.

There was similar scepticism when the Goverment recently banned coffee shops from also selling alcohol, with predictions that trade would suffer.

Veling believes that if anything, cannabis sales have shot up.

"They smoke more, that's my impression."