What does it mean narco state? Also what does it mean:<p>"Their money is increasingly contaminating the legal economy, especially in real estate, business services and hospitality"<p>That people selling and importing/exporting drugs become rich? If drugs are legal then the market system is working just as intended.<p>The reality is that people selling stuff like drugs and sex tend to have an exuberent personality and people like the mayor mostly don't mix well with them, so they want to confine them to the red light district, those who graduate from the red light district but keep their personality are then rejected once they start to buy the expensive real estate that should only be enjoyed by Royal Dutch Shell executives and similar personality types.
The title of the article is:
"As the mayor of Amsterdam, I can see the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state"<p>The title of the submission is my attempt to de-clickbait it.
The opinion piece reads like an incoherent attempt to conflate the negative impact of illegal drug trade with depenalization reforms applied to soft drugs. Rotterdam being used as Europe's cocaine gateway and the Netherlands turning into Europe's financial hub following Brexit has hardly any relationship with coffeeshops selling joints to curious tourists.