The drug laws (or lack thereof) passed in the Netherlands are perhaps the most lenient in the world. Marijuana is almost entirely legal, both for consumption and sale, so long as one isn't a major international trafficker. The laws themselves technically forbid the sale of cannabis, and therefore have no regulatory agencies in place to set standards for health and acceptability--but almost exclusively minor drug dealers are left quite alone. This is pursuant to a topic I mentioned briefly in class, that the country as a whole takes an entirely different approach than do America and similar countries: the government wants to create a culture and atmosphere wherein it is socially acceptable, generally, to use drugs recreationally. Even for what we probably consider a "major" or "hard" drug, cocaine, there is almost no criminal prosecution in the Netherlands, because its harmful health effects are largely unproven to be severe. Perhaps the most interesting part of these "pro-drug" policies is the lack of a normative moral component that we would be shocked to find in America. Users of hard drugs, even the most extreme a la PCP or heroin, aren't shunted into a substratum of society--rather, they are allowed to seek treatment, provided by numerous health agencies and society at large, without being judged as morally reprehensible for their actions. I'm going to copy/paste a bit here from my notes (sorry, Professor Tresan and Jarod) for some fascinating statistics:
o
“Fewer young people are becoming
addicts”—this is of utmost importance
§ Average
age of drug addicts continues to go up across W. Europe
o
Only .6% of people in a survey claimed
to have used cocaine in the past month (or 1.2% among the 20-29 Y.O.
demographic, the highest number). Compare this to 1.5% total in America
o
Apparently 60-80% of Dutch drug
addicts/users are frequent visitors to specialized health services, leading to
their appearing “relatively well and sound”
o
Very interesting table:
§ 22%
of a heroin user’s income in the Netherlands comes from non-drug crime; 43% in
NYC. 18%/17% respectively for income from drug dealing. However, there is a
massive spike in pimping/prostitution for the Dutch: 22%/7%. Very telling
aspect: 28% in Netherlands comes from public support; 11% for NYC
o
“It has widely been observed that the
Dutch drug market is relatively peaceful”
§ 15
deaths from 1980-1988 related directly to drug distribution; +32 with possible
ties
§ 135
total criminal deaths in that period
§ Only
TWO dead policemen in that time in that space—that’s outstanding
A major reason why the amount of violence is so low among drug-related offenses is simply because there is no more motivation for the introduction of aggressive tendencies in the selling of drugs. In a way, the dealers (though technically guilty of misdemeanor level crimes!) are incentivized to not perpetrate violence, because they'll be left alone as long as they stick to what they're best at. By the same token, recreational users, and even addicts, are less prone to be "swept up in the system," to quote the Drug Laws group, because of the leniency towards the small-time use of drugs--and thus a decrease in "street life" violence (if I may be so politically incorrect).
That's all I'll post for now--but there's a lot more. If anyone has any more interest in this topic, leave a comment and I'll see if I have anything pertinent to your request.
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