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The drug policy of the Netherlands is based on 2 principles:

  1. Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal matter
  2. A distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs exists

Netherlands has a high anti-drug related public expenditure, the second highest drug related public expenditure per capita of all countries in EU (after Sweden). The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Hard and soft drugs are loose categories of non-prescription Psychoactive drugs This distinction is used in both official and casual discourse The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in 75% is law enforcement expenditures including police, army, law courts, prisons, customs and finance guards. 25% is health and social care expenditures including treatment, harm reduction, health research and educational including prevention and social affairs interventions. [1][2]

It is a pragmatic policy. Pragmatism generally considered to have originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Peirce, who first stated the Pragmatic maxim. Most policymakers in the Netherlands believe that if a problem has proved to be unsolvable, it is better to try controlling it instead of continuing to enforce laws with mixed results. By comparison, most other countries take the point of view that drugs are detrimental to society and must therefore be outlawed, even when such policies fail to eliminate drug use. This has caused friction between the Netherlands and other countries, most notably with France and Germany. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. As of 2004, Belgium seems to be moving toward the Dutch model and a few local German legislators are calling for experiments based on the Dutch model. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those Switzerland has had long and heated parliamentary debates about whether to follow the Dutch model, but finally decided against it in 2004; currently a ballot initiative is in the works on the question. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation In Political science, the initiative (also known as popular or citizen's initiative) provides a means by which a Petition signed by a certain In the last few years certain strains of marijuana with higher concentrations of THC and drug tourism have challenged the current policy and led to a re-examination of the current approach. Cannabis, also known as marijuana or marihuana, or ganja (from Hindi / Sanskrit: गांजा gānjā hemp) is a Drug tourism is travel for the purpose of obtaining or using drugs for personal use that are unavailable or illegal in one's home jurisdiction [3]

Contents

Public health

Large-scale dealing, production, import and export are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, even if this does not supply end users or coffeeshops with more than the allowed amounts. A cannabis Coffeeshop is a place where the sale of cannabis and Hashish for personal consumption by the public is tolerated by the local Exactly how coffeeshops get their supplies is rarely investigated, however. What is certain is that coffeeshops do sell cannabis that comes from countries where it is illegal. Cannabis ( Cán-na-bis) is a Genus of Flowering plants that includes three putative species Cannabis sativa subsp The average concentration of THC in the cannabis sold in coffeeshops has increased from 9% 1998 to 18% 2005. [4] One of the reasons is plant breeding and use of greenhouse technology for illegal growing of marijuana in Netherlands. Plant breeding is the art and science of changing the genetics of plants for the benefit of humankind A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse or hothouse) is a building where plants are cultivated [4] Large suppliers tend to be criminals motivated by profit who do not make the distinction between hard and soft drugs. The soft drug policy is not without flaws. It fails to address the issue of supply, which can promote problems of its own, such as the involvement of other drugs. Creating a highly controlled, legal production chain for cannabis to combat this problem has been proposed by a number of Dutch politicians over the last few years. By the end of 2005, the majority of the Dutch Parliament was in favour of an experiment with controlled cultivation and production of cannabis[5]. The Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal ( literally "Second Chamber of the States-General" short Tweede Kamer, is the Dutch Lower house. The recent minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner announced in June 2007 that cultivation of cannabis shall continue to be illegal.

Non-enforcement

Cannabis remains a controlled substance in the Netherlands and both possession and production for personal use are still misdemeanors, punishable by fine. A misdemeanor, or misdemeanour, in many common law legal systems is a "lesser" criminal act Coffee shops are also technically illegal according to the statutes but, as has been said, are flourishing nonetheless.

However, a policy of non-enforcement has led to a situation where reliance upon non-enforcement has become common, and because of this the courts have ruled against the government when individual cases were prosecuted.

This is because the Dutch Ministry of Justice applies a gedoogbeleid (policy of tolerance or allowance policy) with regard to soft drugs: an official set of guidelines telling public prosecutors under which circumstances offenders should not be prosecuted. The Netherlands is a civil law country Its laws are written and the application of Customary law is exceptional This is a more official version of the common practice in other countries, in which law enforcement sets priorities as to which offenses are important enough to spend limited resources on.

Proponents of gedoogbeleid argue that such a policy offers more consistency in legal protection in practice, than without it. Opponents of the Dutch drug policy either call for full legalization, or argue that laws should penalize morally wrong or decadent behavior, whether this is enforceable or not.

In the Dutch courts, however, it has long been determined that the institutionalized non-enforcement of statutes with well defined limits constitutes de facto decriminalization. The statutes are kept on the books mainly due to international pressure and in adherence with international treaties.

Drug law enforcement

Despite the high priority given by the Dutch government to fighting narcotics trafficking, the Netherlands continue to be an important transit point for drugs entering Europe, a major producer[6] and leading distributor of amphetamines[7] and other synthetic drugs, and a medium consumer of illicit drugs [8]. Amphetamine, and related drugs such as Methamphetamine are a group of drugs that act by increasing levels of Norepinephrine, Serotonin, and Dopamine The country has also become a major exporter of illicit temazepam of the "jelly" variety, trafficking it to the United Kingdom and other European nations. Temazepam (marketed under brand names Restoril, Euhypnos, Normison, Remestan, Tenox and Norkotral) is an intermediate-acting The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located [9] The Netherlands' special synthetic drug unit, set up in 1997 to coordinate the fight against designer drugs, appears to be successful. Designer drug is a term used to describe Psychoactive drugs which are created (or marketed if they had already existed to get around existing Drug laws The government has intensified cooperation with neighbouring countries and stepped up border controls. In recent years, it also introduced so-called 100% checks and bodyscans at Schiphol Airport on incoming flights from Dutch overseas territories Aruba and Netherlands Antilles to prevent importing cocaine by means of swallowing balloons by mules. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the Netherlands ' main Airport, located 20 minutes (17 Aruba is a -long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, north of the Paraguaná Peninsula, Falcón State, Venezuela The Netherlands Antilles ( Dutch:) previously known as the Netherlands West Indies or Dutch Antilles/West Indies, is part of the Lesser Antilles A balloon swallower is an individual who crosses a border with the intent to smuggle drugs contained in his or her Gastrointestinal tract or other A mule or Courier is someone who smuggles something with him or her (as opposed to sending by mail etc

Although drug use, as opposed to trafficking, is seen primarily as a public health issue, responsibility for drug policy is shared by both the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sports, and the Ministry of Justice. The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global Black market consisting of the cultivation manufacture distribution and sale of illegal Drugs

In contrast with most countries' policies, the Dutch policy has yielded almost universally positive results in the "war against drugs". The Netherlands spends more than €130 million annually on facilities for addicts, of which about fifty percent goes to drug addicts. The Netherlands has extensive demand reduction programs, reaching about ninety percent of the country's 25,000 to 28,000 hard drug users. The number of hard drug addicts has stabilized in the past few years and their average age has risen to 38 years, which is generally seen as a positive trend. Notably, the number of drug-related deaths in the country remains the lowest in Europe.

On 27 November 2003, the Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner announced that his government was considering rules under which coffeeshops would only be allowed to sell soft drugs to Dutch residents in order to satisfy both European neighbours' concerns about the influx of drugs from the Netherlands, as well as those of Netherlands border town residents unhappy with the influx of "drug tourists" from elsewhere in Europe. Events 1095 - Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. As of 2006 nothing has come of this proposal and Dutch coffeehouses still enjoy robust foreign patronage. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The proposal is unlikely to come to part in practice since refusing citizens of neighbouring nations any services of the sort conflicts with the European Union's policies surrounding the four freedoms. In European Union law, the Four Freedoms is a common term for a set of treaty provisions secondary legislation and court decisions protecting the ability of Goods

The results of drug policy in Netherlands

In the Netherlands 9. 7% of young boys consume soft drugs once a month, comparable to the level in Italy (10. 9%) and Germany (9. 9%) and less than in the UK (15. 8%) and Spain (16. 4%) [10], but much higher than in, for example, Sweden (3%), Finland or Greece. [1] Dutch rates of drug use are lower than U. S. rates in every category. [11] The monthly prevalence of drugs other than cannabis among young people (15-24) was 4% in 2004, that was above the average (3%) of 15 compared countries in EU. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in However, seemingly few transcends to becoming problem drug users (0. 3%), well below the average (0. 52%) of the same compared countries. [1]

The reported number of deaths linked to the use of drugs in the Netherlands, as a proportion of the entire population, is lower than the EU average. [12] The Dutch government is able to support approximately 90% of help seeking addicts with detoxification programs. Treatment demand is rising. [13]

Another effect is a problem with an extensive drug tourism from other countries. Drug tourism is travel for the purpose of obtaining or using drugs for personal use that are unavailable or illegal in one's home jurisdiction Drug tourists are in many cases excluded from the drug related statistics from Netherlands.

Criminal investigations into more serious forms of organized crime mainly involve drugs (72%). Most of these are investigations of hard drug crime (specifically cocaine and synthetic drugs) although the number of soft drug cases is rising and currently accounts for 41% of criminal investigations. [13]

Implications of international law

The Netherlands is a party to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is an international Treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific (nominally Narcotic) Drugs and of drugs The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is a United Nations Treaty designed to control Psychoactive drugs such as Amphetamines Barbiturates The 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is one of three major drug control treaties currently in force The 1961 convention prohibits cultivation and trade of naturally-occurring drugs such as cannabis; the 1971 treaty bans the manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs such as barbiturates and amphetamines; and the 1988 convention requires states to criminalize illicit drug possession:

Subject to its constitutional principles and the basic concepts of its legal system, each Party shall adopt such measures as may be necessary to establish as a criminal offence under its domestic law, when committed intentionally, the possession, purchase or cultivation of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances for personal consumption contrary to the provisions of the 1961 Convention, the 1961 Convention as amended or the 1971 Convention.

The International Narcotics Control Board typically interprets this provision to mean that states must prosecute drug possession offenses. The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB is the independent and quasi-judicial control organ for the implementation of the United Nations drug conventions The conventions clearly state that controlled substances are to be restricted to scientific and medical uses. However, Cindy Fazey, former Chief of Demand Reduction for the United Nations Drug Control Programme, believes that the treaties have enough ambiguities and loopholes to allow some room to maneuver. Cindy Fazey is a criminologist and former Chief of Demand Reduction for the United Nations Drug Control Programme. The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP and the United Nations Centre for International Crime Prevention (CICP are part of the United Nations Office In her report entitled The Mechanics and Dynamics of the UN System for International Drug Control, she notes:

Many countries have now decided not to use the full weight of criminal sanctions against people who are in possession of drugs that are for their personal consumption. The Conventions say that there must be an offence under domestic criminal law, it does not say that the law has to be enforced, or that when it is what sanctions should apply. . . . Despite such grey areas latitude is by no means unlimited. The centrality of the principle of limiting narcotic and psychotropic drugs for medical and scientific purposes leaves no room for the legal possibility of recreational use. . . . Nations may currently be pushing the boundaries of the international system, but the pursuit of any action to formally legalize non-medical and non-scientific drug use would require either treaty revision or a complete or partial withdrawal from the current regime.

The Dutch policy of keeping anti-drug laws on the books while limiting enforcement of certain offenses is carefully designed to reduce harm while still complying with the letter of international drug control treaties. This is necessary in order to avoid criticism from the International Narcotics Board, which historically has taken a dim view of any moves to relax official drug policy. In their annual report, the Board has criticised many governments, including Canada, for permitting the medicinal use of cannabis, Australia for providing injecting rooms and the United Kingdom for proposing to downgrade the classification of cannabis,[1] which it has since done (although this change was reversed by the home secretary on 7th May, 2008)

Recent developments

In 2005, Gerd Leers, mayor of the border city of Maastricht, criticised the current policy as inconsistent, by recording a song with the Dutch punk rock band De Heideroosjes. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Gerd Leers (born 12 July 1951, Kerkrade) is the current mayor of Maastricht, Netherlands. Maastricht ( Dutch; Limburgish and city dialect Mestreech; French: Maestricht or Maëstricht; Spanish: The Heideroosjes (pronounced hi-duh-rose-yes HR in short is a punk band from Horst aan de Maas, The Netherlands. By allowing possession and retail sales of cannabis, but not cultivation or wholesale, the government creates numerous problems of crime and public safety, he alleges, and therefore he would like to switch to either legalising and regulating production, or to the full repression that his party (CDA) officially advocates. The Christian Democratic Appeal ( CDA) (Christen Democratisch Appèl is a Dutch Christian-democratic Political party. The latter suggestion has widely been interpreted as rhetorical. [2] Leers's comments have garnered support from other local authorities and put the cultivation issue back on the agenda.

By 2009, 27 coffee shops selling cannabis in Rotterdam, all within 200 meters from schools, must close down. Rotterdam (pronounced) is the 2nd-largest City by population in the Netherlands, located in the province of This is nearly half of the coffeeshops that currently operate within its municipality. This is due to a new policy of city mayor Ivo Opstelten and the town council. [14] The higher levels of the active ingredient in marijuana in Netherlands create a growing opposition against the traditional Dutch view of cannabis as a relatively innocent soft drug. [15] Closing of coffeeshops is not unique for Rotterdam. Many other towns have done the same in the last 10 years.

Bill banning "Magic mushrooms"

In April 25, 2008, the Dutch government, backed by a majority of members of parliament, decided to ban cultivation and use of hallucinogenic or "magic mushrooms" , dried or fresh. Events 1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common The general group of pharmacological agents commonly known as hallucinogens can be divided into three broad categories Psychedelics, Dissociatives [16][17] The ban is referred as a new retreat from liberal drug policies [18]. This followed a number of (deadly) incidents in which people (though, interestingly, mostly tourists) were involved. These deaths were not directly caused by the use of the drug per se, but by deadly accidents occurring while under the influence of magic mushrooms.

Supply control

The recent increase in cocaine trafficking in has focused attention on the Caribbean area. Since early 2003, a special law court with prison facilities has been operational at Schiphol airport. Since the beginning of 2005, there has been 100 % control of all flights from key countries in the Caribbean. In 2004, an average 290 drug couriers per month were arrested, decreasing to 80 per month by early 2006. [2]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c UNODC: SWEDEN’S SUCCESSFUL DRUG POLICY: A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE
  2. ^ a b EMCDDA: Policies and laws
  3. ^ BBC: Dutch cannabis policy challenged, 2007
  4. ^ a b Word Drug report, 2006, Chapter 2.3
  5. ^ Netherlands remains opposed to legalization of cannabis cultivation
  6. ^ UNODC: Seizures laboratories, page 7
  7. ^ UNODC: World Drug report 2007, page 131
  8. ^ Diagram with use of Cocaine per land
  9. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/sep/05/theobserver.uknews6
  10. ^ EMCDDA Annual Report 2007, ch 3 page 43
  11. ^ Drug Policy Alliance: The Netherlands (English). Medical cannabis refers to the use of the Cannabis plant as a physician-recommended Herbal therapy as well as synthetic THC and Cannabinoids The '''prohibition of drugs''' is a subject of considerable controversy Designer drug is a term used to describe Psychoactive drugs which are created (or marketed if they had already existed to get around existing Drug laws DrugPolicy. org (December 18, 2007).  “Dutch rates of drug use are lower than U. S. rates in every category. ”
  12. ^ EMCDDA: Mortality due to drug-related deaths in European countries
  13. ^ a b Trimbos Institute: Cannabis use stable, but treatment demand rising; National Drug Monitor Annual Report 2006 (19-06-2007)
  14. ^ Washington Post Changing Patterns in Social Fabric Test Netherlands
  15. ^ Steeds meer tieners zoeken hulp voor wietverslaving 2007
  16. ^ Afp.google.com, Netherlands to ban 'magic mushrooms'
  17. ^ news.bbc.co.uk, Dutch bill to ban magic mushrooms
  18. ^ Dutch Cabinet bans sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms in new retreat from liberal policies, Herald Tribune, October 12, 2007

General references

External links

  

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