Plans to ban cannabis smoking outside in Amsterdam’s red light district and limit sex performances and brothel opening hours were welcomed by the city’s inhabitants but criticised by visitors.
The new restrictions which were set to come into force in May strive to protect residents from the glassy-eyed tourist zombies that can dominate the centre of the Netherlands’ cultural heartland.
It’s a crime to have, deal or make drugs in the Netherlands but the Dutch government permit coffee shops to peddle cannabis under conditions, which include not causing a public disturbance.
The drug is peddled in dozens of coffee shops across the country with the most famous located in Amsterdam’s red light district where scantily clad sex workers offer their services in windows.
Locals told a newspaper outlet how the sickly cannabis smoke can overwhelm pavement bars, and cafes and that spaced-out foreigners can cause mishaps.
Sisters Sam, Marie and Ijk Van Hattum said they were in favour of personal freedoms, but the city’s cannabis and sex trades had gone too far.
Marie, 36, a psychotherapist, said that Amsterdam is famous around the globe for weed and prostitutes, but that was not what their metropolis was all about, and she said that in the summer the entire city centre reeks of weed.
She said that she thought it was now necessary to limit the use because the freedoms that allowed people to smoke weed were being abused, and she said that they have a friend who suffered a broken leg after one of the stoned zombies stepped out in front of her when she was cycling and caused a crash.
Ijk, 32, an archaeologist, said that there’s a difference between the perception of Amsterdam and the reality of day-to-day life and that they need to limit its use as a tool of precaution and that will make their city safer.
Sam, 32, a teacher added that she felt that these new rules were a good idea and that they don’t smoke cannabis and never have.
Cafe waitress Daphne Pommerel told how tourists seem to think they have the right to smoke everywhere.
Daphne Pommerel, 45, said that people should be able to smoke cannabis but not in every area of the city and that tourists seem to believe they have the right to smoke everywhere, and that they sit down in the cafe and blow smoke over customers who are sitting down to lunch and that it was not right.
However, some people stroll through the red light district, not as a customer, and find it to be clean and not tacky at all, and that sex workers are there of their own choice and are looked after with safety precautions.
Not everybody goes to Amsterdam for drugs and sex, some go for the culture and remarkable history and galleries.
Unfortunately, Amsterdam is a place where drugs and sex workers are in plain view, but it’s been this way for an extremely long time, and now people are shocked, why? On the other hand, Amsterdam is a stunning metropolis and while it’s extremely cultural, a lid does need to be kept on things, and now obviously the residents want to control it and clean it up, and who can blame them?
And anyone who goes to Amsterdam just to smoke week and have sex is missing out on a great city because it’s beautiful and full of friendly, relaxed people, and before anybody says anything, ‘relaxed’ does not mean ‘stoned’.
Generally, Amsterdam is a fantastic place, but unfortunately, tourists go there with no regard for the people that live there, and they just treat it like a holiday resort, rather than a city where people live, and when you’re a guest in someone elses country, you should be a good guest.
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