Legalized prostitution in Amsterdam is a tragic disaster
Twelve years on, and we can now see the results of this experiment. Rather than afford better protection for the women, it has simply increased the market. Rather than confine the brothels to a discrete (and avoidable) part of the city, the sex industry has spilt out all over Amsterdam — including on-street. Rather than be given rights in the ‘workplace’, the prostitutes have found the pimps are as brutal as ever. The government-funded union set up to protect them has been shunned by the vast majority of prostitutes, who remain too scared to complain.
Pimps, under legalisation, have been reclassified as managers and businessmen. Abuse suffered by the women is now called an ‘occupational hazard’, like a stone dropped on a builder’s toe. Sex tourism has grown faster in Amsterdam than the regular type of tourism: as the city became the brothel of Europe, women have been imported by traffickers from Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia to meet the demand. In other words, the pimps remained but became legit — violence was still prevalent but part of the job, and trafficking increased. Support for the women to leave prostitution became almost nonexistent. The innate murkiness of the job has not been washed away by legal benediction.
Some very interesting lessons to be learned here; not the least of which is the why it was doomed to fail.
h/t HotAir Headlines
It’s really shocking that they were wrong about this.
But I’m sure it would work out if we legalized drugs. All that gang violence would just disappear.
brothels are anachronistic and gross and probably chock full of hepatitis the craig’s list model is much more empowering for whores I think except for the odd serial killer
Next they’ll want us to legalize theft.
Oh, wait…
Huh. I’ve been hearing what a huge success this was along with the drug legalization and the porn on street corners thing.
So, given that I can’t trust the press much any more and all information must be presumed to be intentional advocacy, who’s lying to me? The quasi-libertarian ‘free your mind/new society’ side or the stodgy moralistic traditional side? Both maybe?
I just hope they’re making minimum wage.
the muslims in amsterdam will fix this when they take over
This is curious. Is there any other business where managers are allowed to beat employees? It’s almost as if the law-enforcement folks deliberately turn a blind eye to that violence. Kinda like how union thugs rarely get arrested, eh?
“It’s almost as if the law-enforcement folks deliberately turn a blind eye to that violence. Kinda like how union thugs rarely get arrested, eh?”
If the victim won’t testify then you have to catch the batterer in the act and document it, and that’s hard to do. Unless of course the alleged batter is a white hispanic. Then you are free to manufacture evidence or alter it.
The cotton industry used to be that way, back when it was run by Southern Democrats.
Maybe if they used a brighter shade of red for the pig’s lipstick.
Well, considering the social harm of pot is fairly nil as compared to alcohol or chemical drugs, there should always be scrutiny and the ability to revisit certain drug policies or laws that are ineffective.
As more States either vote for Medical Pot or legal pot, based on the experience and judgement of voters, the failed war on (some) drugs may need to change, at least as far as pot is concerned.
What is happening now in CA since medical legalization is that prices have dropped to around $800 per pound wholsale. The illegal growers and Narco-trafficantes have to move their pot to States where it is illegal to get top dollar. If the National ban on pot were lifted, the market WOULD crash, as it is easily grown in ones backyard or greenhouse. The criminals, idiots and hippies would go out of business and the business pros will take it over, with the result of really low prices, more akin to alcohol or tobacco.
The Federal Government is now planning for legalization with their typical theft taxation model of getting 50% + of the first wholesale transaction, plus collecting all the sales taxes on each transaction after that. Much like booze, government will get more per pound than the growers will.
But, they will also not be able to stop people growing their own, regardless of whether or not that remains illegal. That will be an easy way to avoid the taxes they are planning with legal pot.
The cotton industry used to be that way, back when it was run by Southern Democrats.
Perfect.
The criminals, idiots and hippies would go out of business and the business pros will take it over, with the result of really low prices, more akin to alcohol or tobacco.
I once made a hippie cry by making him realize that in an age of legalized pot, the market for his glassblowing and hydroponics would be about the same size as that of Zig-Zags or McClelland Personal Reserve. Who’s going to spend the time and money on specialty goods when you can buy Marlboro Blunts in any convenience store?
Poor kid. I’ve no idea how much he had to smoke to come to grips with that reality.
considering the social harm of pot is fairly nil as compared to alcohol or chemical drugs
This isn’t accurate, SGT Ted. Marijuana is a gateway drug. I know I sound like our parents, but it’s the truth.
Have you ever met a heroin addict/cokehead/methhead who just woke up one day and said out of the blue “I think I’ll start shooting up” ? It just doesn’t happen. It’s like all risky behaviour, there is an escalation.
Does anyone ever think of unnecessarily higher gasoline prices (or other fuel and energy prices) in the guise of a tax on the economic health of the nation, sucking wealth away from otherwise productive uses to which that wealth may have been deployed?
So in that manner, can the artificially high blackmarket prices of nominally illicit drugs act in the same way on the economy as a whole? Just askin’ — and not advocating — simply because the abstract relationship seems somewhat analogous. Then too, the ends to which the unnecessarily flowing wealth goes have their own secondary and tertiary effects, rippling out across the economic pond.
“Gateway Drug” is a propaganda term.
One could make the same “gateway” assertion about alcohol and tobacco. Or Redbull or any of the other speed inspired “energy” drinks.
Go to any AA or NA meeting and the vast majority of them are all furiously smoking cigarrettes on breaks. They always have coffee in their hands. Gateway drugs indeed.
Part of it is the illicit sub-culture encouraged by the laws based on the idiotic notion that pot is just as harmful as heroin. So, instead of buying from the corner store and dealing with upright citizens, they have to deal with the same sorts that deal heroin and coke and are exposed to it more than alcohol users are. When you criminalize the substance, mostly criminals take the risks of dealing in it.
Also, the huge lies told about pots dangerousness make the other nastier chemical drugs seem less dangerous. Because when someone figures out that pot doesn’t make you grow tits, or make you sterile or any of the other reefer madness bullshit junk science claims made by the prohbitionists, they tend to take the warnings of the very real dangers of chemical drugs with a big grain of salt.
I thought that argument dumb as a teen-ager, and haven’t changed my opinion much. By that logic, coffee should be outlawed.
We would be greatly served by decriminalizing pot and going hard after meth. Way too much resources are used, from detection/eradication efforts to full prisons, for something anyone can grow on their windowsill. For something everyone knows there are successful people using with no more ill effect than casual drinking.
Meth, on the other hand, addicts and destroys from the first try, and yes, there are many that try it young and without prior pot abuse, and are ruined. It’s baaaad shit…
Come to think of it, I’ve been around pot heads all my adult life and there was only one that I met that had been a heroine addict. I know a lady that was into speed but she was a drunk too. I’ve known folks that were meth users that didn’t smoke pot. Same with some ecstasy users. Ive known former heroine addicts that used pot to stay off of the junk.
“Gateway drug” is bullshit propaganda pushed by the pot prohibitionists of DARE and their ilk.
The one common thread I’ve noticed about pot users is that most of them I’ve known seem convinced that they’ve had a harder life than anyone else that ever lived and getting high is the only reason they don’t just lay down and die. Or something.
I’d have a hard time going along with the idea we need more people like that.
McGhee Id say that if it weren’t pot they were smoking, theyd be drinking and telling their barmate the exact same things.
In other words, miserable people don’t need pot to be miserable.
“Gateway drug” is bullshit propaganda
No it isn’t. Look at all the 40+ guys who are pissing their lives away because they never got around to doing something with themselves because they were partying. Construction workers come to mind. There is a lot of science behind addiction and addiction vs. dependency. You can dismiss it as bullshit, but that doesn’t make it so. Anecdotes do not equal data.
Weed has a cummulative effect on cognition. As does alcohol, as do street and prescription drugs.
pot is fine if you want to legalize it
for reals it’s fine
also it’s ok if you want to legalize prostitution
Huh?
Amsterdam tried all that Needle Park bullshit, too. Free clean needles for all their junkies who continued to share them, give each other AIDS and die like flies in the parks.
FAIL.
Not you Lee.
Talk to some 50 year old pot smoking coworkers vs. 50 non-pot smoking coworkers and notice the difference in cognition. 30 years of blowing weed stuffs cobwebs in your brain.
Only more government can prevent cobwebs? That’s a solidly progressive thought, albeit not a novel one.
Quit blaming pot for peoples laziness. Lazy people are lazy without pot.
And don’t confuse abuse with responsible use such as with alcohol. It’s like wanting to ban booze because we have drunkards. It is the exact same argument.
My assertion is not bullshit, but based on 26 years involvement with law enforcement and 20 years involvement with the medical and legalization side as well as having good dialogue with intelligent kids who’ve heard the DARE argument and see the flaws and holes in their assertions.
The “Gateway Drug” argument is bullshit. It excludes other legal substances that alter the mind in order to gain a false legitimacy. It is predicated on lies by omission.
You go to your church and I’ll go to mine, Ted. I’ve also worked with people in inpatient drug and alcohol programs for more than 20 years so I can appeal to authority as well.
Only more government can prevent cobwebs?
I never said that, did I?
Leigh, you have no idea whether or not your pot smoking co-workers were dumb to begin with.
How do you know whether or not the smart ones smoke pot? You don’t really know, do you? They might be keeping it private. You might be very surprised.
I bet you’d be surprised how many professionals have puffed the devil weed for half their life, and you don’t know it.
I’d like to see the method and numbers on your smoking/non-smoking cognition study though.
Or DO anecdotes equal data?
OK Ted, I’m getting damn tired of you stepping on my lines…
You suffer from the same syndrome that cops and hardcorps AAers do.
You think everybody that smokes pot are like the ones that wind up in rehab or have monumentally screwed up their lives with drugs.
Using alcohol doesn’t equal alcoholic.
Using pot doesn’t equal druggie.
LB, Sorry man. Great minds etc.
When did I say any of this, Ted?:
You suffer from the same syndrome that cops and hardcorps AAers do.
You think everybody that smokes pot are like the ones that wind up in rehab or have monumentally screwed up their lives with drugs.
Using alcohol doesn’t equal alcoholic.
Using pot doesn’t equal druggie.
I didn’t know that mind-reading was one of your talents—wait! It isn’t, because I don’t think any of those things. So get your ass out of the air and think before you speak.
Ok perhaps I am over attributing motive and cause. I retract my 12:50 pm comment.
But, I find the prohibition argument weak in its substance and in many cases, based on complete bullshit and lies, usually government sponsored ones. The same arguments used to keep pot prohibition are the same as those used to ban booze, but we seem to deal with booze quite handily overall.
As you can tell, I find the gateway drug argument unpersuasive based on its selective use to argue against just one substance, while excluding other legal substances, some of which are far more addictive. I find it to be rather laughable, actually. “Watch out, you’ll catch The Heroine if you smoke pot!”.
The same rules for alcohol use could be applied to pot use and society would not degrade. We’d save a ton of money on the law enforcement side that could be used to target the hard stuff.
Retraction accepted.
Class act, my man. Now your ass is no longer airy.
i mean how often do pot smokers get on their bikes and ride on down to hookerville anyway
probably not as much as you’d think
unless the hookers have snack trays
Exactly. A helluva lot of pot smokers I know are successful business and family men.
The keep the fact they smoke well hidden because of uptight folks who think the probably do herion too and the draconian confiscation laws.
The only pot smokers most people see are the fuck ups.
And strictly government regulated prostitution is rife with corruption?
Imagine that.
Lee, here is the newest study I could find for you regarding marijuana and cognitive decline.
Fwiw, I’m no angel when it comes to drugs, although those days are far behind me. One of the areas I studied for some time was impaired professionals: Doctors, nurses, dentists, EMTs, pharmacists, etal. Dentists and anesthesiologists, followed closely by pharmacists have the highest incidence of drug abuse among healthcare professionals.
I find it less than comforting that my anesthesiologist may be higher than a Georgia pine when he’s putting me under.
Leigh, from your link:
Yeah, I wouldn’t give youngsters all the diet soda they want either.
Don’t mean construction workers should be outlawed for drinking diet Pepsi though…
Think alcohol has more of an affect on teenagers than adults?
Gateway!
Orpheus had a go a liberating a woman from the underworld. Didn’t work out for him either.
orpheus didn’t have a craig’s list account though
google it
cnn is obsessed with the murderous blade running fiend and his dead baba
boring.
This what they needed Jakey Tapdance for?
Zucker is a vapid twat.
48 down – “gay appendages inhales”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ – _ _ _ _ _
Think alcohol has more of an affect on teenagers than adults?
Yes. Neural pathways aren’t firmly established until one is in ones 20s.
(I’m sorry I used construction workers as an example. I was recalling all the stoners I knew back in the day who were roofers. Apparently, stoners and daredevils.)
*cumulative
That is all.
I find it less than comforting that my anesthesiologist may be higher than a Georgia pine when he’s putting me under.
I think the same thing about someone who drinks during work too. It is this conflation of casual, responsible use with abuse that I object to.
You equate someone who smokes some pot after work with the dude who is high at work. Do you really think all pot users smoke all day, every day?
Ok I take back part of my retraction, because this part that I directed at you as a criticism:
Using alcohol doesn’t equal alcoholic.
Using pot doesn’t equal druggie.
is evidently an accurate criticism of your thinking on the matter, based on your statement about your anasthesiologist being high at work.