Amsterdam to close many brothels, marijuana cafes

Amsterdam to close many brothels, marijuana cafes - World - smh.com.au

December 7, 2008

Amsterdam has unveiled plans to shutter up to half of its famed brothels and marijuana cafes as part of a major clean-up of its ancient city centre.

The city says it wants to drive organised crime out of the neighbourhood, and is targeting businesses that "generate criminality," including prostitution, gambling parlours, "smart shops" that sell herbal treatments, head shops and "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold openly.

"By reduction and zoning of these kinds of functions, we will be able to manage better and tackle the criminal infrastructure," the city said in a statement.

It said it would also reduce a number of business it sees as related to the "decay" of the centre, including peep shows, sex shows, sex shops, mini supermarkets, massage parlours and souvenir shops.

The city said there were too many of these and it believes some are used for money-laundering by drug dealers and the human traffickers who supply many of the city's prostitutes.

Under the plan announced on Saturday, Amsterdam will spend 30 million ($59.8 million) to 40 million euros ($79.7 million) to bring hotels, restaurants, cultural organisations and boutiques to the centre. It will also build new underground parking areas for cars and bikes and may use some of the vacated buildings to ease a housing shortage.

Amsterdam already had plans to close many brothels and said last month it might close some coffee shops throughout the city, but the plans announced on Saturday go much further.

The city said it would offer retraining to prostitutes and coffee shop employees who will lose their jobs as a result of the plan.

Prostitution, which has spread into several areas of the centre, will be allowed only in two areas - notably De Wallen ("The Walls"), a web of streets and alleys around the city's medieval retaining dam walls. The area has been a centre of prostitution since before the city's golden shipping age in the 1600s.

Prostitution was legalised in the Netherlands in 2000, formalising a long-standing tolerance policy.

Marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but prosecutors won't press charges for possession of small amounts and the coffee shops are able to sell it openly.

AP