“It’s really different than before,” says Van Burk. He describes how in the past it was mainly groups of two or three dealers who sold drugs to passing tourists.
“And that’s part of it,” he says. “But nowadays it is much more organized. They all stand together in groups of sometimes up to ten people and in pairs they leave and come back. There is a whole network behind it.”
Local residents, who prefer not to share their names (known to the editors), also share that feeling. “They used to be poor slobs, those dealers,” one of them describes. “But now there is a whole system behind it.”
Van Burk regularly speaks to dealers and says that groups from other cities come to Amsterdam to do business here in the Red Light District. “Because this is where the tourist sits.” He thinks there is too much supply for the demand, causing nuisance and intimidation.
Threats and violence
According to Van Burk, dealers regularly intimidate. “They stand in front of the entrance of our sex workers, they demand half the money that customers pay or threaten you if you don’t buy drugs from them.” After a lap through the busiest place in the Red Light District on Saturday evening you can easily count ten dealers, “and that’s after one lap. Let alone the whole night.”
Catering owner Steven Krijger sees how the user is also changing: “Decades ago, it took a lot of effort to get these types of users out of the street scene, and they just come back.”