The old town of Amsterdam, the part of the Dutch capital that includes
the Red Light District
, suffers the consequences of mass and party tourism, so the municipality is looking for ways to reduce its attractiveness to certain visitors and is considering
banning cannabis smoking in the zone
and limit the hours of sale of soft drugs.
The council has a series of proposals on the table, which still need to be discussed with residents, businessmen and the council, and which include banning cannabis smoking in the old town, closing hotels
and prostitution earlier on weekends
, and further restricting plus the sale of alcohol in the area, the sale of which is already prohibited in shops and cafeterias from Thursday to Sunday after 4:00 p.m.
The municipal government is also investigating the possibility of
limiting the distribution of soft drugs in the "coffee shops"
, places of sale and consumption of marijuana, in the area during the last hours of the afternoon, in a further step towards reducing the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse on the streets.
An Australian tourist smokes a hookah in a cafe in Amsterdam.
[AP Photo]
The municipality seeks above all to improve the lives of the people who live in the area, after the exodus in recent years to the periphery due to the insecurities, noise and dirt that living in the old town of Amsterdam is entailing.
"Tourists also attract street vendors which in turn lead to crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get gloomy, especially at night. People who are under the influence stay a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood
becomes becomes unsafe and uninhabitable
", regrets the city council.
The goal, he explains, is "to further counteract the huge disturbances, especially at night," in the De Wallen area, which includes the Red Light District.
Neighbors and businessmen will have four weeks to give their opinion on the proposals, before the full council debates the measures.
If approved by the council,
they would go into effect in mid-May.
Red light district in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Photo Shutterstock
These measures are added to others that are already in place, such as the ban on drinking alcohol in the street, the application of restrictions on street vendors, the limitation of one-way traffic during periods of greatest activity, and the closure of parts of the Red Light District at times of high tourism.
"If the inconvenience does not decrease sufficiently with the smoking ban, the possibilities of
banning smoking on the terraces of the area's cafes
will also be studied ," warned the City Council, which has intensified in recent years the search for solutions to the most controversial tourist attractions in the city
: the Red Light District and the "coffee shops"
.
One of the measures already decided by the municipality is that establishments with a hotel license close their doors at 02:00 on Fridays and Saturdays (instead of 04:00), while prostitution businesses can remain open until 03:00, in place until 06.00 in the morning." "To better distribute the crowds, no new customers are allowed after 1.00 in the morning."
"We also want to close the terraces at 1:00 a.m. in the summer months, instead of 2:00 a.m. as now. They can give their opinion for four weeks on the advancement of the terraces' hours," the city council asks the residents of Amsterdam.
Two years ago, Amsterdam wanted to go a step further and prohibit foreign tourists from accessing "coffee shops" due to the increase in demand for soft drugs caused by "cannabis tourism", but the measure has not gone
ahead
. , at least for now.
Amsterdam, Red Light, Red Light District (Getty Images)
Almost a third of these coffee shops in the Netherlands are located in Amsterdam.
According to an investigation carried out by the municipality, a large number of foreign tourists would no longer want to come to Amsterdam if they were prohibited from entering "coffee shops", which would mean that, in 2025, the capital only needs 73 premises to meet local demand.
Amsterdam is also investigating the possibility of moving the Red Light District to a kind of "erotic center" in another part of the capital, away from prostitution in the tourist center, in a bid to attract "a different tourist" to the city, making it a a place where the residents themselves also want to go.
EFE
look too
A study found that marijuana damages the lungs more than tobacco
He had Lyme disease, decided to leave the world, and his father published a devastating letter