Flying Pig - The City of Sin in Full Swing
The city, the train station, even just saying the name itself carries with it a certain high. A visit to Amsterdam is its own kind of drug, one that millions of people are dosing themselves with annually. And what a rush it is. Tripping on "AmDa" (a street nickname for the city that I made up for the purposes of this article) will hit you hard, leaving you breathless and wanting more. It's euphoric.
However, like any good drug, there's a media smear campaign against it. A conservative idea has surfaced that's trying to sully the image of the beautifully sinful city we all know and love. Sure, maybe the purchase of a ticket to Amsterdam should come with a disclaimer, but it should be something along the lines of:
WARNING: A trip to Amsterdam may lead to happiness, improvement of overall satisfaction with life, exciting memories, adventures with new friends, stronger bonds with old friends, a fulfillment of some of your wildest sexual curiosities, and a small weight gain due to the consumption of Stroopwafel, and other such delights. It does have the potential for addiction.
That's a message I can get on board with because those are the side effects of a trip to Amsterdam that people need to know about. What I can't go along with is this new idea that all tourists to Amsterdam entering coffee shops are gun-loving, baby-eating, mafia-like members of the underworld...when at worst we are fun-loving, experience-eating, child-like members of the outer world.
The rumor mills are spitting out a lot of hype about the coffee shops in Amsterdam requiring Dutch ID's and only selling to residents, some claiming that this rule is already in effect. However, don't believe everything you read. It may be true that legislation has been implemented in other Dutch cities, and even proposed for Amsterdam, but don't worry your clouded little head. That nightmare is far from coming true in the Venice of the North.
The Dutch Tolerance Policy that provides the laws under which the coffee shops can operate was renewed in July 2011 and it will be gloriously valid until 2015. This is a local issue, and since the Amsterdam city council, the mayor, and a fair amount of the residents oppose the whole scheme it won't be happening in Amsterdam for at least the next four years.
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- Matt Smith
