Amsterdam To Close Many Of Its Brothels, Marijuana Cafes, Sex Shops

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Amsterdam unveiled plans Saturday to close brothels, sex shops and marijuana cafes in its ancient city center as part of a major effort to drive organized crime out of the tourist haven.

The city is targeting businesses that "generate criminality," including gambling parlors, and the so-called "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold openly. Also targeted are peep shows, massage parlors and souvenir shops used by drug dealers for money-laundering.

"I think that the new reality will be more in line with our image as a tolerant and crazy place, rather than a free zone for criminals" said Lodewijk Asscher, a city council member and one of the main proponents of the plan.

The news comes just one day after Amsterdam's mayor said he would search for loopholes in new rules laid down by the national government that would close marijuana cafes near schools citywide. The measures announced Saturday would affect about 36 coffee shops in the center itself _ a little less than 20 percent of the city total.

Asscher underlined that the city center will remain true to its freewheeling reputation.

"It'll be a place with 200 windows (for prostitutes) and 30 coffee shops, which you can't find anywhere else in the world _ very exciting, but also with cultural attractions," he said. "And you won't have to be embarrassed to say you came."

Under the plan announced Saturday, Amsterdam will spend euro30 million to euro40 million ($38 million to $51 million) to bring hotels, restaurants, art galleries and boutiques to the center. It will also build new underground parking areas.

Amsterdam already had plans to close many brothels and some coffee shops, but plans announced Saturday go further.

Asscher said the city would reshape the area, using zoning rules, buying out businesses and offering assistance to upgrade stores. The city has shut brothels and sex clubs in the past by relying on a law allowing the closure of businesses with bookkeeping irregularities.

Prostitution will be allowed only in two areas in the district _ notably De Wallen ("The Walls"), a web of streets and alleys around the city's medieval retaining dam walls. The area has been a center of prostitution since before the city's golden shipping age in the 1600s.

Prostitution was legalized in the Netherlands in 2000, formalizing a long-standing tolerance policy.

Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but prosecutors won't press charges for possession of small amounts. Coffee shops are able to sell it openly.

Comments

[Soundofthunder]

Isn't America's failed drug war enough of a model on which to base their policies, as in do the opposite? The USA has over one MILLION people in jail for the mere possession of drugs. Not a single drug has ever been imprisoned. Just people. War on drugs? More like war on people who rebel against the cra.ppy legal drugs, the pharmacological industry and the idea that TASTES should be codified.

SOT

[krocklin]

They should close down Wall Street too. It just generates too much criminality; let's face it.

[TimeGrid]

History repeating: recession.­.. proibition­ism...

[GoodwithWood]

"Dam". There goes my vacation plans.

[adamsmith3]

It seems like making these things illegal will just create a black market. They'd probably be better off stepping up their police force. Government­-regulated morals, just like over-regulated markets, usually creates more problems that solves them.

[Johnagain]

Watch as the businesses that generate 'criminality' move to the suburbs and surrounding villages.

[jdl51]

As in any business, regulation is the key. Closing it down won't stop it, just drive it underground where it will all be run by criminals. On a related note, Michigan just approved medical marijuana. Someday soon, I hope, it will be approved nationwide.

[rabiddog6708]

NOOOOOOOOOO! The city is targeting businesses that "generate criminalit­y." The same could be said for Wall Street here in the good old USA, but we haven't targeted the investment firms....t­he brokers...­.the hedge fund managers..­..the bankers...­....wait a minute, Amsterdam might be on to something.­....if they can clean out their criminal element than we could do the same here....ro­und up the usual suspects.

[pahpah25]

where will the right wing republicans & their preachers,go for their'vacations' now?

[rabiddog6708]

Probably Thailand.

[Tomhere]

Orlando, Florida - GAY WEEK!

[KarateKid]

They don't go anywhere, they can get it right here. And not just Republicans, either - Eliot Spitzer??

[DrDemon]

Well do the ratio's...

1 Democrat to 46 Republicans

Now your case is?

[rgmwdc]

Nevada

[bigironal25]

Thailand!!!

[vwoom]

There's always the airport mens room...ala Larry Craig "style". ;p

[KarateKid]

Periodically, the Dutch get Puritanical and try to clean up the sex and drug trade. It's no big deal, the Dutch government overall have taken a more mature approach, and the result is less crime and more education. I've been in coffee shops where families walk in, with small children, and have coffee and soft drinks while at the next table, someone is smoking.

You don't see people walking around the streets smoking, they really frown on that, and you don't see harder drugs, which they also frown on and arrest you for, either. They tax both industries. I've seen tour buses with elderly Chinese couples pull up to the red light district for a walk through.

If you take the "forbidden fruit" aspect out of the mix, it becomes quite ordinary, to tell you the truth. You see it once, and move on to the other reasons why one would go to the Netherlands. America needs to grow up about both things.

[porkbarrel]

"you don't see harder drugs..." Maybe you didn't, but there are plenty around and addicts of every stripe. Just about anything you would want will be offered to you in a 100 yard radius of the train station entrance if you have the look of someone who is after such things. I'm all for legal drugs and good treatment for those who need it. But there's no reason to pretend that smack, crank, pills etc. somehow drop out of the mix when weed is tolerated.

[NotYourGirlfriend]

It has been comical reading some of the comments from people who have clearly never been to the Nederlands­.. far less Amsterdam. Give it a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's not just a tourist filled red light district, and tourist filled coffee shops.

Men, I'm craving some Smuller's fries :-)

Misleading headline, btw.

[KarateKid]

Smuller's fries, yummmm. And great Middle Eastern food, too. Van Gogh and Rembrandt museums, Delfft ceramics, Anne Frank house, the beaches of The Hague in summertime.

In Europe, I learned to eat fries with mayo and still do. They looked at me like I was nuts when I asked for ketchup. :-)

[lynnn]

Yea I loved the Middle Eastern food.

[RevMetheus]

I spent a whole day in the Van Gogh museum and not nearly enough time in the Rykes Museum (Rembrandt) it was amazing.

Damn fun police and the whole world growing so conservative. Maybe we'll all live a little longer if we are having fun instead of hating. Our conservative influence on the world (and not even just our influence, the world has grown much more conservative) has taken a good chunk of the fun out of Amsterdam and a briefly re-invigorated Canada.

[mercyrocks]

Smuller's fries? What are they?

[elcojonu]

If Amsterdam goes out of the Young Tourist Business maybe Copenhagen will open-up.
The market is there and someone will fill the void.

[darthdarcy]

When ever government seeks to enforce morals beyond the protection of the young of course, all it does is create a market for organized crime, prohibition should have taught us that...!

If the drug lords ever stopped paying off our corrupt government officials we would see reasonable legalization of at the very least marijuana, but as long as government officials cops the prison industry profit from these illogical draconian laws the longer they will stand, no matter how unjust or wrong headed or illogical.­...!

[bsc]

This is a mistake. They are doing to Amsterdam what Guiliani did to New York- selling it to Disney and taking away everything that makes it great. I lived in the Netherlands for a while and Amsterdam was truly a place unlike any other. Leave it alone.

[elcojonu]

I couldn't agree with you more.
A classy, cultured, cosmopolitan and progressive city.
I don't think it will last, the Dutch are very sensible people; they'll find a way to solve the problem without changing the character of the city.

[americanzutroy]

Many? 20 percent of the coffeeshops? That's not a very sweeping re-regulation. Plus, Marijuana is so culturally tolerated. Going just a few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I found great tranquility in many of the coffeeshops, with many patrons in certain stores well into middle age. The dutch philosophy is safety, and their view is that if there are certain locations to indulge in vices like marijuana and prostitutes, or to purchase psychedelics, then there is a way for both the government to regulate and profit from it. Plus it keeps that criminal element from profiting in the black market. It's what happened with prohibition.

[Jessegirl]

So what...the­re will still be sex and drugs, it's just that he is putting the brakes on things
before they get too out of control.
It sounds like he is thinking of the future and cares about the overall picture.

[netzwerg]

I went to see my doctor here in Amsterdam last year for some stomach ailments. He said with a very straight face ''Have you tried any weed''? I told him I had some in the freezer but haven't touched it for over a year. He said 'Give that a try'' before I prescribe anything else. Voila, it was gone within 6 hours and never came back. Also, slept like a baby that night.

[elcojonu]

Pssst, pssst, it's also good for arthritis.

[whit4brains]

I use to smoke with my friend who was in chemo. It was the only way she could get enough of an appetite to even eat.

It really gets such a bad rap, when it can help with many ailments.

[americanzutroy]

Me too! Man my doc became alright after that.