London Sunday Times Says
"Amsterdam In Purge On Sex And Drugs;"
The Facts Say Otherwise
See
Very Accurate
Description of Dutch Cannabis Policies
On Front Page Of Canada’s National Newspaper! Important!
and other stories @ Go Dutch!The London Sunday
Times
editor@sunday-times.co.uk
May 3, 1998
By Peter Conradi
(Ed. note: This is another story that will be cited by
prohibitionists to prove that the Dutch marijuana policy is a failure. The few facts are
mostly correct, but the interpretation is prohibitionist, and very misleading.
First, it must be understood that Amsterdam is a small city, a small part of which –
the oldest -- is visited by over five million tourists per year.
Second, as the mayor makes clear, this is a move toward regulation, not prohibition.
The reduction in the number of coffee shops has been underway for more than a year.
Because they are technically illegal, they were essentially unregulated. In late 1996 they
were officially allowed to have half a kilo in inventory, whereas the previous limit was
just one ounce, which was also to limit that anyone could purchase. Hence, it was possible
that one customer would buy your entire stock. This was absurd, and everyone knew it. Now
the purchase limit is 5 grams – one percent of inventory.
There are coffee shops in neighborhoods all over the city – and roughly 1,000 more
around the country in almost every town. No one ever hears about these shops, but in the
heart of the old "red light district" there were simply more than could be
sustained on just marijuana sales. This meant that some were inevitably fronts for other
activities.
While this story treats the Moroccan minority problems separately, this is a bit too
delicate. In fact, many of the problem shops were owned or run by Moroccans. As the
production of Dutch marijuana increases, the reliance on smuggled Moroccan smugglers
decreases.
In any case, contrary to the impression that this story gives, I have never found any
official in Amsterdam who thinks that marijuana, per se, creates social problems.)
AMSTERDAM IN PURGE ON SEX AND DRUGS
FOR many visitors to Amsterdam, the most startling sights have long been the
"coffee shops" where marijuana is openly sold
(Ed. note: Actually, they are not a "startling sight" in
that they are not particulary noticeable. Their name and sign can only hint at what they
sell.)
and the "window brothels" that display prostitutes like mannequins. But the sex
and drugs capital of Europe is undergoing a purge to rid itself of its reputation as a
city where anything goes.
Nearly half the 400 cafes that supplied soft drugs have been shut
down on the orders of Schelto Patijn, the forceful mayor, mostly on the grounds that they
have broken rules governing the amount of stock on the premises or have traded hard drugs.
The crackdown has also hit the brothels that had thrived in the red light district for
almost 400 years. Inspectors were dispatched to ensure that the brothels complied with
hygiene regulations and employed no illegal immigrants. Some of the 200 proprietors have
given up the game: more than a dozen buildings have been sold to the city authorities and
turned into homes.
"It is clear that this is a liberal city which still allows
and will always allow quite a lot,"
said Patijn last week in his office
overlooking one of the city’s canals. "But we let things go a little too far -
we found we had lots of illegal underage prostitutes and that most of the coffee shops
were dealing in Rolex watches and hard drugs."
A port city, Amsterdam has traditionally looked outwards to the world. Since the 1960s
its free and easy attitude to sex and drugs has attracted countless young people.
(Ed. note: Amsterdam does not have an "easy attitude"
toward "drugs" – only cannabis. Hard drugs sales are very much forbidden.
Moreover, the policy is national, not municipal. There are coffee shops near the
parliament building in The Hague.)
However, the burgeoning growth of both industries also spawned squalor and crime. Many
of the narrow cobbled streets that run through the centre of the city have become
dilapidated and scarred by graffiti.
(Ed. note: The "delapidation" has nothing to do with any
of this. It is an old city built on a seabed. Old building and streets take a lot of
maintenance and some that are very pretty are being propped up, while they try to figure
out an economic way to save them. Actually, Amsterdam has long been undergoing a sort of
gentrification.)
Large numbers of prostitutes arrived illegally from the former Soviet bloc or from
Third World countries, often against their will. Street crime rose by more than a third in
the first few months of this year; theft of motorbikes and Amsterdam’s ubiquitous
bicycles rose by 60%.
The city has also suffered from growing tension within its immigrant community.
Hundreds of Moroccans fought a street battle with police last month after one youth was
arrested. The busy central railway station, where drug addicts have preyed on commuters
and tourists alike to feed their habit, is one of seven areas where a state of emergency
was declared by the authorities last month.
"Travellers coming through just don’t feel safe here any more," said
Henk Klaver, who has run a catering business in the station for 15 years.
In an effort to improve security, the authorities have ordered
those addicted to injected drugs such as heroin to "shoot up" at specially
established centres. Anybody who repeatedly breaks the rules faces imprisonment. Plans are
also under way to build "treatment prisons", where criminal addicts will be made
to give up their dependency on drugs.
The mayor, a senior member of the Labour party led by Wim Kok, the Dutch prime
minister, even banned street musicians from much of the city centre, although he cancelled
this initiative after an outcry, claiming he had signed the order by mistake among a pile
of documents prepared by his officials.
Despite the other measures, Patijn, who has run the city since
1994, remains a liberal at heart, laughing off comparisons with the so-called "zero
tolerance" policy pioneered by Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York.
"Zero tolerance means nothing," Patijn said. "The moment Mr Giuliani
started fining people who walked across the street diagonally and not straight, even the
police started laughing.
"I don’t belong to some right-wing sect that wants to forbid all sin in the
world. But I want it to be crystal clear about what is allowed. I’m not trying to
reform this city; I am just trying to put certain things right."
Supported