Smoking marijuana in the area will soon be illegal during certain hours, under new regulations
Officials in the Dutch capital Amsterdam have announced strict new regulations in an effort to improve conditions in the city’s Red Light District. These laws are intended to reduce disturbance caused by tourists, although they are set to have a major impact on businesses.
Under the new rules, which will go into effect in mid-May, smoking marijuana will be completely banned in public spaces in the county from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m., Thursday through Sunday. However, city officials said the measure could later be expanded to include a ban on smoking marijuana outside cafes.
Businesses will have to limit their hours of operation, while prostitutes will have to close by 3 a.m. Restaurants and bars will have to close by 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. In addition, no new visitors are allowed into the old town after 1am, according to the city council.
Shops, cafes and liquor stores in the county, which are currently banned from selling alcohol from Thursday to Sunday after 4 p.m., will have to completely remove all alcohol from their storefronts during that time or hide them from view.
In a press release announcing the law, a city council spokesperson stated that the new law hopes to bring locals more “peaceful late night.” It argued that the atmosphere in the district became “terrible, especially at night” because there are so many people “influence persists for a long time.”
Following the announcement, the leader of the local Christian Democratic party Diederik Boomsma told Dutch media that he was delighted with the new law, stressing that Amsterdam needed to “Finally getting rid of the image of a Walhalla of paid sex and drugs.”
“There are days when you can’t even walk around the center without inhaling the nagging stench of marijuana smoke, with touristy zombies stumbling about. That has to stop,” he say.
Amsterdam is known worldwide for its cannabis cafes and the Red Light District, which attracts millions of tourists every year. But locals have long complained that these locations attract street vendors and that rampant drug and alcohol use increases crime rates.
City officials are also looking to launch a “away” in the spring, to prevent tourists from coming to the capital just for the sake of drugs, alcohol and sex.
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