DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Amsterdam to clamp down on sex shops, brothels, dope cafes

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- 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 "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 prostitute]) 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 €30 million to €40 million ($38 million to $51 million) to bring hotels, restaurants, art galleries and boutiques to the center. It will also build underground parking areas.

Amsterdam had plans to close many brothels and some coffee shops, but those 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.

Good thing I visited Amsterdam before they ruined it.

that part of europe does well when it comes to drug control and green technology

My buddy just got back from Amsterdam talking a bunch of game about the "coffee shops."

I told him that I would take the pepsi challenge with my stuff and that Amsterdam stuff any day of the week. He seems to agree that high-potency kinds are high-potency kinds no matter where you are.

I love smoking that one-hit quit kind of green. Its all I ever mess with.

There goes all the fun

Well, that tears it.. I'm cancelling my flights right now....

Well so much for vacationing there. I guess this means the Cannibus Cup will be moving to another country next year?

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He seems to agree that high-potency kinds are high-potency kinds no matter where you are.

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I hear you. I have smoked enough to realize that in general, headies is headies. You can throw whatever name you want on anything, good is good wherever you get it.

People grow it inside now, and they have perfected their methods. If you've got a good hook up, it doesnt matter if it's from canada, amsterdam, or anywhere.

Also, I hear that what we have now is much better than what people had decades ago. I bet we could smoke those 60's hippies out of the water

That's not the point. The point of Amsterdam is to go for the completely insane atmosphere, the prostitutes in the window, the cafes and beautiful city. And when you go to smoke some weed in the cafe, they take you to the basement to view every kind of pot you could ever possibly imagine and you pick out what you want.

I'm not a pot smoker except on that occasion and even I could appreciate the glory of it.

And then you smoke it upstairs in the bar with everyone else in plain view. Something you can't do in the States.