Amsterdam bans cannabis in Red Light District and tightens brothel rules
Hazy holidays to the Dutch capital will soon be all but a thing of the past thanks to a new law.
Later this year it will become illegal to smoke cannabis on the street in Amsterdam's red light district, the city has announced.
From mid-May this year lighting up will be forbidden in public spaces in the inner city between 4pm and 1am from Thursday to Sunday.
The city's officials are also looking at whether they can ban take-away cannabis sales in the same time frame, Dutch News reports.
A ban of smoking in the spaces outside coffee shops - where cannabis can be bought - is also being considered.
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Ahead of the new laws coming into force, restaurants, bars and sex shows will have to shut at 2am and brothels at 3am instead of 6am from April.
The changes will come into force in May (NurPhoto via Getty Images)Any establishment selling alcohol will have to shut its doors to new guests from 1am.
Diederik Boomsma, leader of the local Christian Democrats, celebrated news of the change.
He told Dutch News: "Some days you can’t even walk around the centre without breathing in the persistent stench of cannabis fumes, with glassy-eyed tourist zombies staggering about. That has to stop.
"Amsterdam needs to finally get rid of its image as a Walhalla for paid sex and drugs.
"[Our] message to tourists: 'Welcome! But if you’re coming just to snort, swallow or smoke drugs: don’t'."
A spokesperson for the city said that the atmosphere in the Red Light District had become "dire" at night.
"A lot of people are under the influence (of drugs and alcohol) and hang around for a long time," she said.
Smoking cannabis will become much harder in the city (Getty Images)"This comes at the expense of a good night’s sleep for residents and the liveability and safety of the whole neighbourhood.’
"There will be a ban on drinking alcohol in public, more measures against drug dealers on the streets, and restrictions on alcohol sales in local shops in the red light district, where alcohol sales are already forbidden from Thursday night to Sunday."
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Almost 2.5 million British visitors travel to Amsterdam each year, making up more than 10% of the city's annual tourists.
Those who have found solace in the Dutch city's coffee shops may soon be able to move their holidays to Germany.
The country is poised to become just the second European nation to allow the recreational use of marijuana after the government released a plan to legalise the drug in October.
One potential snag is that Germany's government has to convince the EU to approve the plans.
The European Commission has the power to determine whether the proposed policy change contradicts a 2004 legal decision regulating drug laws across the bloc.
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