Attitude of Gratitude

Innerspace t-shirt

... and I'm so sad. Seems like things are really changing in the Netherlands these days. First, they want to shut down the red light district, and now they are making the use of Psilocybin mushrooms illegal. What will come next?

I am adamantly against both. I hate to tell you, but people aren’t flocking to Amsterdam for the beautiful architecture and quaint canals. Nope, it is because pf legal drugs and prostitution. And without these things to draw in tourists Amsterdam and the Netherlands it might just as well be under water, in my humble opinion. I do not think that people will bother to travel there as much.

According to Simply Amsterdam News, the Red Light District draws in 1.8 million tourists per year. That is more than NASA’s Cape Canaveral, which only brings in 1.4 million tourists per year. Clearly people are more interested in sex than in space! And given that the RLD only covers a few streets and canals, it draws quite a large number of tourists to the Amsterdam area, each of them exploring, eating, drinking and generally boasting the economy. Well…when they aren’t having sex with prostitutes, that is!

And now the mushrooms! What are they thinking?! Seriously, they are making it illegal because of a few people taking drugs irresponsibly and dying. I can guarantee you that more people die from alcohol (abuse, DWI, etc) than from mushrooms, and you don’t see them making that illegal.

These things are what gives Amsterdam its edge. They are an undercurrent of the society, and it will continue even if they make it illegal. And they have been a part of the history of Amsterdam and the Netherlands for centuries. On the flip side, they are such a small part of what A’dam is all about, so why get rid of it?

What happened to the NLer’s being so liberal?