The Mayor of Amsterdam wants to legalize and regulate the sale, possession and use of cocaine. 

In an interview with Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad, Mayor Femke Halsema very strongly voiced her opinion on drug prohibition and how the decriminalization and legal sale of drugs like cocaine would take power away from organized crime groups who threaten the safety and stability of Amsterdam. 

“We have handed the market to unscrupulous criminals. They earn billions. And in the meantime, the war on drugs is disrupting entire countries, causing countless victims and strengthening the criminal business model,” Mayor Halsema said. 

Indeed Dutch Customs has recently released a report which supported the notion that organized crime surrounding cocaine trafficking is on the rise in Europe. Dutch Customs seized over 60,000 kilograms of cocaine in 2023 and 51,000 kilograms in 2022. Mayor Halsema has arranged a public debate on the matter which has been scheduled for January 26 in Amsterdam.

Cocaine seizures around Europe have followed the same trend with hundreds of metric tonnes seized around the EU year after year. Many reports have attested that the average price of European cocaine has been cut almost in half and the UN reported in March of last year that cocaine production was at an all time high. 

“Let us conclude that hundreds of years of discouragement and repression have achieved very little,” Halsema said to Financieele Dagblad. “Apparently people have a need for stimulants. There is a market for that.”

Mayor Halsema has been a vocal advocate for change in the City of Amsterdam since her appointment to the role in 2018. She wrote an opinion piece for the Guardian earlier this month in which she expressed that the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state if steps are not taken to reign in organized crime. 

“The widespread use of drugs is integrated into society. The market is enormous. But there are risks to public health and then you should not leave the market to criminals,” Mayor Halsema said to Financieele Dagblad. “Abusing drugs can have serious consequences. But often the risks are exaggerated. Cocaine, for example, is less harmful than alcohol. People make their own choices.”

Mayor Halsema also told Bloomberg in July of 2022 that she would be taking steps to cut back on problematic forms of tourism post-COVID. She intimated that Amsterdam needed to pull back from the reputation it has garnered as a sort of safe haven for ne’er do wells who came to her city to take a “vacation from morals.”

“In Amsterdam, there’s a state of mind of tolerance. We always argue that cannabis should be legalized and prostitution shouldn’t be criminalized. That is also a part of Amsterdam’s history, a history that we’re very proud of,” Mayor Halsema said to Bloomberg. “But drug culture and prostitution have been internationally commercialized. That is not the way it was intended. We should correct the way we advertised the city in the last 15 years.”

This may seem a bit disconnected for a Mayor advocating for legal cocaine sales but from a harm reduction perspective, it makes sense. Mayor Halsema likened it to Amsterdam’s famous red light district which from her perspective is there to provide safety and security to sex workers who, as she puts it, will always be there to serve customers so long as there is a demand for sex work. 

The same can be said of cocaine sales. A 2023 report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that cocaine was the second most commonly abused drug in Europe next to cannabis and cocaine seizures in major seaports around the continent have consistently risen every year since 2016. A survey found that almost 2.3 million Europeans between the ages of 15 and 34 had used cocaine in the preceding year.

These record increases in use and trafficking led Switzerland to recently open discussions to consider the launch of a pilot program for adult-use recreational cocaine sales in their capital city of Bern. Mayor Halsema appears to have followed suit by doubling down on what she considered to be a common sense approach to drug policy. 

“What the Netherlands’ problems reveal is the need for a global shift in the current approach. It’s not a matter of retracting our user-centred policy, but rather advocating for international recognition that the war on drugs is counterproductive,” Mayor Halsema wrote to the Guardian. “The prohibition of drugs is enshrined in international treaties that limit the space for national drug policies, meaning we will have to forge new international alliances that prioritise health and safety over punitive measures.”

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A new ordinance banning cannabis use on the streets in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is slated to take effect later this month. 

The ban, officially approved by Amsterdam’s city council last week, will “come into effect from May 25 and will be enforced by police and local officials,” according to Bloomberg, which noted that violation of the new law will result in a €100 (or $109) fine.

The law was offered up by the Amsterdam city council in February, with local officials decrying the “nuisance” and “grim” atmosphere of the famous district at night.

“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the city council said in a statement at the time.

“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council continued.

CNN reported at the time that if the outdoor smoking ban failed to achieve the desired results, the “municipality said it would also consider banning take-out purchases of soft drugs at certain times, and banning smoking marijuana at coffee shops’ outdoor seating areas.”

“It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district,” according to CNN. “City officials want the De Wallen neighborhood, as the district is known in Dutch, to draw visitors who can appreciate its unique heritage, architecture and culture rather than sex and drugs. Over the past few years, there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image.

In 2020, guided tours were prohibited from passing sex workers’ windows, and there was talk of moving the window brothels to a neighborhood outside of the city center—conversations that continue to this day.” 

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has prioritized cleaning up the Red Light District since becoming mayor nearly five years ago.

In 2019, Halsema, who is Amsterdam’s first female mayor, “presented four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district,” CNN reported at the time.

“For many visitors, the sex workers have become no more than an attraction to look at. In some cases this is accompanied by disruptive behavior and a disrespectful attitude to the sex workers in the windows,” Halsema’s office said, as quoted by CNN, which outlined some of the mayor’s proposed reforms:

“Four scenarios have been proposed for discussion including closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker “hotel” being created. The plans aim to protect sex workers from gawking tourists and their camera phones, and also to combat a rise in abuses such as human trafficking. The four proposals will be discussed with sex workers, residents and businesses in July, before being taken to the city council in September. The plans will ultimately be developed into a new policy on sex work, the mayor’s office confirmed.”

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For many tourists, Amsterdam’s red light district has long been a destination to escape the laws and restrictions of their normal lives, a place where anything goes. But the people who live there, it seems, are ready to chill out.

Amsterdam’s city council said last Thursday that it will ban cannabis use on the streets of the red light district, citing the “nuisance” and “grim” atmosphere that typifies the area in the evening hours. 

The officials said that they intend for the rule to take effect in mid-May.

“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the council said in a statement on Thursday. 

“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council added.

As Reuters noted, the move is “part of a campaign by Amsterdam’s first female mayor, Femke Halsema, to make the neighbourhood more liveable for residents.”

According to CNN, “there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image” in recent years, including a rule that prohibited guided tours from passing by sex workers’ windows.

Since she became mayor of the Dutch capital in 2018, Halsema has made reform of the city’s red light district a priority.

In 2019, Halsema presented “four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district,” CNN reported at the time, which included “closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker ‘hotel’ being created.”

“For many visitors, the sex workers have become no more than an attraction to look at. In some cases this is accompanied by disruptive behavior and a disrespectful attitude to the sex workers in the windows,” the mayor’s office said in a statement at the time, as quoted by CNN.

In addition to the proposed smoking ban announced on Thursday the Amsterdam city council said that one “of the measures that has already been decided on is to have catering establishments and sex establishments with a catering license close their doors at 02:00 on Fridays and Saturdays,” as opposed to the current closing time of 3 or 4 a.m.

“Prostitution businesses may then remain open until 3 a.m. Now it is until 6:00 a.m.,” the council said. “To spread the crowds better, no new visitors are allowed in after 1:00 a.m. We also want to close the terraces at 1:00 a.m. in the summer months. That is now 2:00 a.m.”

The council also said that the sale of alcohol by shops, liquor stores and cafeterias will continue to be prohibited “from Thursday to Sunday from 4 p.m.”

According to CNN, it is “estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district,” which the Dutch commonly refer to as the De Wallen neighborhood.

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Meghan Markle might want to trademark the word “archetype” for her own enrichment, but it just goes to show how universal some fights actually are. Not to mention how unoriginal the continual threats to one of the most enduring if not endearing symbols of Amsterdam continue to be.

The latest salvo against the city’s coffeeshops comes (yet again) from the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, who has just unveiled her latest plan to ban tourists from the city’s cannabis cafes, and further with a well-worn excuse. Namely, to “get a grip” on the local soft drugs market, and the outdated rant that cannabis is a gateway drug to other, harder drugs.

It is a broken record—but sadly, one she insists on pursuing to the bitter end.

Here is her reasoning: According to some city officials at least, “only” 66 of the current 166 licensed shops are “needed” to meet local demand—meaning that she really wants to close down 100 (or about 2/3) of them. Further, according to Halsema, banning cannatourists in Amsterdam is the “best way” to manage the country’s pending cannabis cultivation trial (which of course excludes coffee shops in Amsterdam and other large Dutch cities)—rather than trying to integrate them into it—which is also inevitable.

However, the move is hardly surprising. Amsterdam’s officials have long tried to shut down the cannatrade against evidence that this unique aspect of Holland’s culture has not only become an enduring international symbol of the cannabis industry and reform but are beginning to be widely copied everywhere prohibition is finally receding. Apparently, these officials do not think that the attraction, which draws about 58% of tourists to the city, is one they want to continue to associate with Amsterdam. About 3 million tourists visit the city annually, specifically to partake in this unique experience.

Of course, both the industry and evidence say otherwise. Indeed, in smaller towns in Holland where coffeeshops are limited to local residents, there has been a resurgence in street dealing.

Beyond this, both of the largest parties represented on the city council, D66 and Groenlinks are opposed to the initiative, which was announced after the March local elections.

Regardless, Halsema does not need to rely on majority support if she declares the situation to be a “necessity.” She has also been on this particular bandwagon for at least the last two years.

So much for democracy, not to mention governing for and with the will of the people.

Amsterdam Prohibition Rears its Head as Progress Threatens the Status Quo

This is not the first attempt to limit the coffeeshop trade or even ban tourists from the same, much less from Halsema who has been trying to achieve this goal for the last couple of years. She has also used various excuses that more or less sound the same—including using the COVID pandemic to temporarily shut down all of shops—although also being forced to allow takeout service as the lockdown endured for the last several years.

Part of the problem, no matter how popular such destinations are with foreign visitors—particularly British and Germans—is that tourism constitutes only about 10% of the overall economy of the city. According to Halsema, “Amsterdam is in a lucky position where it could really use the pandemic to try some new things.”

Apparently, integrating the city’s coffeeshops into the national cultivation trial is not one of those ideas. Indeed, it is only being used as another excuse to shut down said establishments.

Why Now?

As much as this effort is clearly timed for publicity, it is yet another sign of how tone-deaf, if not enduringly anti-cannabis, elected officials can be to the advances of the industry, if not deliberately ignorant about the drug and the impact of its usage. 

There is zero evidence that cannabis use leads to harder drugs. Indeed there is more and more data proving that in fact it is a gateway off of them—starting with opioids.

Beyond this, of course, it is also clear in any jurisdiction which has proceeded with at least a semi-legitimized cannabis trade that banning parts of it do not stop demand—but rather drive it further into the black market.

That said, such regressive statements, attitudes, and outdated campaigns, are here to stay for some time in Europe as multiple countries wrestle now with how to integrate cannabis into the mainstream. See Germany, right next door, where the new national government, which used recreational cannabis reform as an election plank, has clearly pushed such a move to the backburner in the face of more compelling priorities.

The jury of course, is still out on whether the mayor and the “Dark Side” will win this salvo. No matter what Halsema and others of her ilk may want, or even wish to impose, it is unlikely that tourists will be effectively banned from such establishments—starting with the fact that in Barcelona, this has also proved to be impossible. 

It is also unlikely that Halsema will win in the long term. Some coffeeshops may close. However, those that survive, just as those which endured the previous purges, will only emerge stronger and more popular than before.

And that is an archetype that even Jung would approve of.

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