Drugs and hookers, (and other points of interest), in Amsterdam!

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Amsterdam is a fascinating European city with it's romantic canals, age old architecture, the Anne Frank House, several world renowned museums housing works by masters like Van Gogh and Rembrandt, the creepy Amsterdam Dungeon attraction, great restaurants, and awesome shopping. There are so many cool things to do in Amsterdam.

Over the last 10 years, a lot has been done to control and regulate the prostitution industry in Amsterdam. Prostitutes and brothel owners must now apply for a license, and all woman or men, I guess, working as prostitutes must be over 21 and legal residents of the Netherlands, which has significantly cut down on the amount of human trafficking. Police carry out regular checks throughout the industry to make sure everything is on the up and up.

The most common type of prostitution that tourists come in contact with are the window women in the red light district. These women either work for an agency, or rent out the window space and small rooms attached to... peddle their wares, so to say. They get really unhappy if you take pictures of them at work, which is why I chose to photograph empty windows. They're all over the red light district, on main streets, side streets, and right next to churches, and it all seems totally normal somehow. If approached by a potential customer, they open their door to discuss the price for the desired services, and if both parties can reach an agreement, they retire to the small room in the back, and get it on. I have no idea what anything costs, but I have heard horror stories about people getting ripped off by woman who suddenly raise the price in the middle of the session and threaten to stop immediately if the customer is not willing to pay. It doesn't always go that way, though, and as a matter of fact, I know one guy who met his future wife while paying her for sex in the Amsterdam red light district.

Now let's talk about drugs. Marijuana is considered a soft drug in the Netherlands, and there are some complicated loopholes in the national legislation that make buying, selling, and consuming small amounts basically legal. It's kind of like the laws about fireworks in the USA. Everything else is illegal and punishable by law, including very recently magic mushrooms. Anyways, the only legal place to buy marijuana is in one of the hundreds of coffee shops, which is technically the only place you are allowed to publicly smoke it, too. You must be over 18 to enter a coffee shop, and then just ask for the menu. You can buy it by the bag, a pre-rolled joint, or a so called space cake, which you should be really f*cking careful with. I once wasted the better part of an afternoon chaperoning a friend who ate an entire space cake on an empty stomach. The things he went through were not pretty, so if you're going to try a space cake, just eat a tiny little bit of it and then wait several hours to see what happens, or you might end up drooling and peeing your pants and ruining everyone else's day. There are plenty of very happy and relaxed workers in the coffee shops to answer any questions, or, as weird as it sounds, to help you get stoned, but feel free to private message me at Youtube or on Facebook if you need any more advice or think I may have gotten some facts mixed up.

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