Buying drugs doesn’t need to involve criminals, violence, and neighborhood blight. These are pictures I took a few years back of a friend buying drugs in an Amsterdam “coffee shop.” I show it to my classes at John Jay College of Criminal justice. Amsterdam is a beautiful city of canals and old buildings. I love being on a boat. In…
The Dutch make an interesting and useful distinction between “hard” and “soft” drugs. When a Amsterdam police officer says, “I think drugs should be illegal and dealers should go to prison,” they’re almost assuredly talking about “hard” drugs like crack and heroin. Marijuana and hashish are considered “soft” drugs and were decriminalized in 1976. The result is that “coffee shops”…
I often wonder why anybody would prefer to crunch numbers than do fun qualitative research. I’m in Amsterdam right now. I made contact with and successfully gained access to my desired police station tonight (to make a long story short). I want to compare the attitude toward drugs of Baltimore and Amsterdam police officers. These attitudes are very different. Even…
Feel free to steal this idea: For centuries, the Netherlands has tried to “normalize” their society. While it may have worked in the past, today “normalization” is killing Amsterdam. What makes Amsterdam great and unique, is that it isn’t a “normal” city. In Holland, they have a different idea of democracy. The mayor of Amsterdam isn’t even an elected position.…
Here’s one of the least intimidating police stations you may ever see. In Osdorp, Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam, it can take a somewhat trained eye to even know you’re in the “bad” part of town. First, there’s the immigrant issue. Actually the issue is more with the children (the male children) of immigrants. Immigrants, and not just illegal immigrants, are considered a problem here and in most of Western Europe. Citizens of Moroccan decent take most…
In the Netherlands, you can walk into any “coffee shop” and legally buy or smoke marijuana or hashish. It’s a sight so common, you barely notice it. So here, in a “bad” part of town, are the drug dealers. They don’t shoot each other. They pay taxes–albeit not on the sale, which is technically only “decriminalized,” but they do pay…
It’s my Spring Break and I’m in Amsterdam doing police research (and visiting friends). Biking with my brother today, I passed this sign. This is what you can do if you regulate drugs. This sign was put up because it’s an “area deserving special attention” (or something like that). In Amsterdam, this is considered a “bad” part of town. It’s…