Amsterdam Gone to Pot

Amsterdam is closing many of its "coffee shops" or marijuana cafes, sex shops, and brothels in its city center in order to clean up the increasing organized crime taking place there. According to the CNN article, such businesses that "generate criminality" will be affected, like peep shows, massage parlors, gambling parlors, and souvenir shops that drug dealers use for money-laundering.

The city's move strikes me as amusing — as does a city council member’s comment that the change “will be more in line with our image as a tolerant and crazy place, rather than a free zone for criminals.” It really shouldn't be shocking or profound that such city-wide tolerance for prostitution, marijuana cafes, etc., encouraged and harbored crime. Why wouldn't criminals be drawn to a place where certain actions deemed crimes in most places are not illegal in Amsterdam? These things are illegal in other countries not just because they are detrimental to individuals and society but because making them legal opens the doors to a flood of more problems. Who’s going to notice shady dealings against a backdrop of general shadiness?

So how bad is the crime there? I browsed online for some information and discovered a 2007 Dutch article claiming that Amsterdam is the second most criminal town in the Netherlands but also the most attractive city in the country to live in, according to the Foundation Atlas for Municipalities. High rates of poverty and tourists contribute to the crime level, as does a “revenge-war amongst top criminals” that has led to multiple deaths.

This Dutch site’s headline is, “If you think Amsterdam is safe, then think again!” It notes that there is scant information about crime in the city made available for the public, and that in turn lends a false sense of security. The site warns that there is a shortage of policemen, and that street robberies have increased in quantity and in violent nature.

A New York Times article in Feb. 2008 explains that the “city council has voted to clean up the historic but notorious district, which has become bloated with expanding sleaze” and that “there is new evidence that criminal gangs, including East Europeans and Russians, have encroached on the area, making it meaner, more violent and more in the grip of the underworld of international sex traffickers.”

From Amsterdam’s perspective, of course, their problem is not with the prostitution and marijuana but the violence and organized crime including money laundering, murder, and sex trafficking — so they’re still allowing prostitution (but only in two areas in the district) and some “coffee shops” in order to maintain Amsterdam’s tolerant reputation. But what they’re missing is that this tolerated activity helped bring about the other crime they’re denouncing, so even if the organized crime is removed now, what’s to prevent it from returning? A simple reduction in prostitution and marijuana cafes is not going to deter crime in the long haul.

The city is planning to spend over $40 million on swanky hotels, restaurants, and art galleries to refurbish its image so that visitors won’t be embarrassed to visit the city center. If it’s true there is a dire need for more policemen already, surely the city needs to address this issue by hiring and training police before the city upgrade begins and more tourists arrive. And more tourists could lead to more crime if the police aren’t capable of curbing it.

Lastly, note that prostitution is legal there, but marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands. Before reading this article I’d been under the general impression that it is legal. The reality is that smokers aren’t prosecuted for possession of small amounts and that it’s sold openly in “coffee shops.”