by John Lawrence, Frank Thomas and Wesley Demarest
This is the first part of a two part article considering whether or not drugs and prostitution should be legalized in the US. Part 2 on the legalization of prostitution can be found here.
A recent documentary by Ken Burns on Prohibition brought to light the harmful effects of trying to outlaw an activity deeply ingrained in human culture - the drinking of alcohol - which was prohibited by constitutional amendment from 1920 to 1933 when the amendment was repealed. Not only did the prohibition of alcohol not diminish the actual drinking of it, nor did it reduce alcoholism, but prohibition opened up previously unavailable opportunities for organized crime. It also produced an epic level of hypocrisy among politicians who disparaged alcohol publicly while indulging in it privately. Revenues due to excise taxes which funded the Federal government for much of its history up till then dried up. Drug use and prostitution are related since many drug users are prostitutes and many prostitutes are drug users. Many people feel that you can't legislate morality so the government should stay out of trying to control people's personal habits. One such person is libertarian and Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul. Listen to what he has to say.
Politicians, most notably Eliot Spitzer, former Governor of the great state of New York, have been embarassed, scandalized and driven from office over dalliances with prostitutes while rock stars, athletes and entertainers glorify and seemingly get away with drug use and sexual practices somewhat removed from the mainstream. While virtually no one is subjected to harsh jail sentences as a result of prostitution, minor drug offenses lead to jail time. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world - about 1% of the entire adult population - largely due to minor drug offenses. What amounts to a war is raging on the US Mexican border due to criminal drug syndicates in Mexico which cater to the American appetite for illegal drugs. Of the two - drugs and prostitution - drugs are by far the greater problem due to the illegal importation of them, the killing in Mexico because of rival drug gangs fighting each other for dominance and the large incarceration rate mainly of African-Americans in the US. 9.2% of African-American adults were in prison in 2008. The prisons to house these inmates are costing taxpayers a huge amount of money while the taxes that could be collected on legalized drugs go uncollected in an economy that's in desparate need of revenue.
Jazz singer Anita O'Day in her autobiography "High Times Hard Times" commented about the fact that marijuana, which was legal in the US up till 1933, was made illegal precisely when alcohol was legalized again:
| People ask me when I first smoked grass. Well, I smoked it before it became illegal in 1933, although it really wasn't legal for me to smoke anything then. But before going into our dance, George and I would share what we called a reefer. It was no big deal when I was twelve or thirteen. If you lived in the Uptown district, you could buy a joint at the corner store, if not nearer. I never read the newspapers so I didn't know when pot was outlawed and beer became legal. One night I asked George for a hit on a joint and I thought he was going to flip out. 'Do you want to get us arrested?' he hissed. Then he told me what had come down. It didn't make sense. One day weed had been harmless, booze outlawed, the next, alcohol was in and weed led to 'living death.' They didn't fool me. I kept on using it, but I was just a little more cautious. |
Other famous jazz musicians such as trumpeter Louis Armstrong were lifelong devotees of marijuana. It didn't seem to hurt his career any. Pianist and composer Thelonious Monk was denied a cabaret card in New York City for many years which meant he could not earn a living playing in clubs, due to a minor drug offense. In some cases musicians were set up and drugs planted on them by police. Habits formed when marijuana was legal were hard to break particularly in the African-American community when marijuana became illegal in 1933. The persistence of cultural patterns of smoking MJ probably has something to do with the large number of African-Americans incarcerated today because of its use. The hypocrisy of a system which makes beer legal one day and marijuana illegal the next does nothing but breed disrespect for the law which is what happened during the Prohibition era.
The history of cocaine has a similar trajectory. Cocaine was perfectly legal in the US up to 1914. In early 20th-century Memphis, Tennesee, cocaine was sold in neighborhood drugstores on Beale Street, costing five or ten cents for a small boxful. In the 1890s the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, which was distributed to millions of Americans homes, offered a syringe and a small amount of cocaine for $1.50. Stevedores along the Mississippi River used the drug as a stimulant, and white employers encouraged its use by black laborers. In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act outlawed the sale and distribution of cocaine in the United States. However, the use of cocaine was still legal. Cocaine was not considered a controlled substance in the United States until 1970, when it was listed in the Controlled Substances Act. Until that point, the use of cocaine was open and rarely prosecuted in the US. Since 1970 the jails have filled up with people prosecuted for minor drug use.
From 1898 through 1910 diacetylmorphine, the technical name for heroin, was marketed under the trademark name Heroin as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant by the German corporation Bayer. The name was derived from the Greek word for Heros because of its perceived "heroic" effects upon a user. Bayer marketed the drug as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that it rapidly metabolizes into morphine. As such, diacetylmorphine is essentially a quicker acting form of morphine. Contrary to Bayer's advertising as a "non-addictive morphine substitute," heroin would soon have one of the highest rates of dependence amongst its users.
In the USA the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was passed in 1914 to control the sale and distribution of diacetylmorphine and other opioids, but allowed the drug to be prescribed and sold for medical purposes. In 1924 the United States Congress banned its sale, importation or manufacture. It is now a Schedule I substance, which makes it illegal for non-medical use in signatory nations of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs treaty, including the United States.
In 1923, the U.S. Treasury Department's Narcotics Division (the first federal drug agency) banned all legal narcotics sales, forcing addicts to buy from illegal street dealers. Soon, a thriving black market opened up in New York's Chinatown.
Today a majority of people in the US favor the legalization of marijuana. At the same time more deaths occurred last year due to prescription drugs than to illegal drugs. These two facts seem to indicate that prescription drugs are a greater problem than marijuana.
On the other hand, Zurich's experience with its "drug park" is a cautionary tale for the liberal tolerance of drug use and its legalization. The following article from the New York Times is so interesting and informative that we reprint it here in its entirety:
After years of steadily rising crime and other drug-related problems, this city once associated more with banking and solid civic virtue than with marauding groups of addicts has ended its innovative experiment with an open drug market in a public park here.
The smashed windows of a Chanel store and a central branch of Credit Suisse, as well as the shooting of an unidentified man on Thursday, betray the sharp tensions that have stemmed from the closing last week of the Platzspitz, a park where the illicit activities of thousands of drug addicts and dealers were tolerated in recent years in a policy of containment of the drug problem.
Andres Oehler, a municipal spokesman, said the City Council had decided to shut the park, now sealed behind 10-foot iron fences hastily erected on the adjoining bridges, because "it was felt that the situation had got out of control in every sense."
But closing the park left several unresolved issues, including the fate of what has become a large international community of addicts in Zurich and the question of what exactly went wrong with an initiative originally aimed at helping drug abusers.
Addicts were drawn from all over Europe in recent years by the Socialist City Council's decision to offer clean syringes, the help of health officials and a large measure of tolerance in the Platzspitz, a once-elegant garden behind the stately National Museum.
The city characterized its approach as an enlightened effort to isolate the drug problem in an area away from residential neighborhoods, curb AIDS and foster rehabilitation. Its policy reflected a strong current of feeling among some European experts that it is the illegal and clandestine nature of the drug business, rather than the drugs themselves, that causes many of the associated problems.
But the situation gradually degenerated. "You give a little finger, and they want the whole hand," said a senior city official who insisted on anonymity. "You turn a blind eye to the small deals, and the big ones come. It was a spiral."
Regular users of the park swelled from a few hundred at the outset in 1987 to about 20,000, with about 25 percent of them coming from other countries. Then, Mr. Oehler said, dealers from Turkey, Yugoslavia and Lebanon moved in last year. Thefts and violence increased, with 81 drug-related deaths in 1991, twice as many as in 1990.
"We were having to resuscitate an average of 12 people a day, with peaks of 40 a day on some days," said Dr. Albert Weittstein, the city's chief medical officer. "Our people were running up around the park blowing oxygen into people's lungs. We started with three doctors, but recently had to put in two more. It has become an impossible strain."
Groups of as many as 50 addicts now gather in the streets adjoining the park, where they are jostled by police officers with orders to disperse them. "This is a crazy decision, we'll be in the whole city now," said one young man, a syringe casually tucked behind his ear, as a policeman pushed him away. He declined to be identified.
On a nearby bench another youth, apparently oblivious to the approaching police officers, calmly tightened a belt around his upper arm before plunging a needle into a bulging vein below his elbow.
Christoph Schmid, a 21-year-old Swiss addict who has been using the park for the last two years, took a measured view of the action. He said the closing and the police crackdown would cause him and others "enormous difficulties" -- heroin has become harder to get and its price has already doubled to about $230 per gram -- but he also said the Platzspitz had recently become too violent. "Too many kids were getting hooked too easily," he added.
The park -- beautifully situated at the confluence of the Sihl and Limmat Rivers, which isolated it from neighbors despite its central location -- is now a monument to vain utopian hope and sordid devastation. "Anarchy is possible," proclaim graffiti scrawled across the National Museum. A bronze statue of a stag has been adorned with the word "Dope" in fluorescent orange paint.
On the ground lie thousands of discarded syringes and syringe packets, now being collected by garbage crews. The rhododendrons that once lined the paths are dead; so, too, are many of the trees. Most of the expanses of grass have been reduced to mud.
Peter Stunzi, the director of the city's parks, said that because the park had become what he called "Zurich's municipal urinal," the soil is such that it will be difficult to plant anything in the near future.
He added that he believed it was right to close the Platzspitz because "Zurich could not be responsible for the drugs of Switzerland and the rest of Europe." But he added, "My worst nightmare is that these people will now have nowhere to go."
The city government wants all those who are not from Zurich to leave. Signs have been posted around the city warning that the authorities will no longer tolerate the public shooting up or handling of drugs or gatherings of groups of addicts. All those not from the city should "go back to the communes, where they will be helped."
Checking for Outsiders
Mr. Oehler, the city's spokesman on drug matters, said that by April hostels in Zurich where addicts are allowed to sleep for about $3 a night will no longer accept anyone who does not have an identity card proving Zurich residency. But he conceded that "the problems will take a long time to resolve."
The city's new measures appear to be coming into force amid tensions in the nine-member City Council. One member, Emilie Lieberherr, who is responsible for social affairs, has protested the action as ill-considered. And there seems to be a general feeling that while mistakes were made, frontal attacks on drug abuse are not the answer either.
"We hoped we could minimize the social costs by creating an open market where people could get help," Dr. Weittstein said. "We thought we'd ferret out the dealers, but we failed, and we did not consider the dynamics of a still illegal business, which meant that dealers and users were attracted from far afield."
He added that the failure of the park did not, in his view, resolve the argument over whether drug prohibition makes matters better or worse. "I believe and most Swiss experts believe, that prohibition does a lot of damage," he said.
Drugs used in the park were still technically illegal. But attempts by plainclothes police officers to clamp down on dealers achieved little.
There are an estimated 30,000 drug addicts in Switzerland, a country whose industrious precision has created enormous wealth and a sparkling order, but also a conspicuous alienation among youths.
About $1.5 million will now be spent on renovating the park, Mr. Stunzi said, and it is hoped that a pristine Platzspitz might reopen by the spring of 1993 at the earliest.
By then, Zurich hopes, its self-created reputation as a drug capital will have faded. But for now, its streets are full of the confused ebb and flow of a disoriented mass of youths. Outside the park's closed gates, when the police move off, hordes of addicts quickly return to try to salvage with spoons some precious white powder that had spilled to the ground.
The lesson here, I believe, is to not create a central location for drug addicts, offer free needles and attract them from all over the world. Zurich effectively created a drug addict's nirvana while their efforts at rehabilitation were insufficient. They more or less said that drug users will inevitably always be with us so let's just herd them into one central location. Intervention as opposed to incarceration might be a better approach. This would mean taking the addict off of the street, denying them access to drugs and then offering them treatment and rehabilitation before letting them go free again. This requires societal resources, but might maximize the probability that a particular addict might stay clean once he or she goes back into society.
The question of drug legalization has to do with which drugs are to be legalized - just soft drugs like marijuana or hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine too. Ron Paul is for legalizing all drugs on the grounds that government should not dictate people's personal habits, and most people would not try heroin anyway even if it were legal. Certainly, legalizing marijuana would cut the cross border illegal trade considerably while doing nothing more than legalizing a substance which had been previously legal in the US up till 1933. The Prohibition era for marijuana would be over as it was for alcohol in 1933. The growing and selling of marijuana could provide jobs for many people in a jobless economy. Taxing marijuana could provide much needed government revenues. The diminution of the prison population would be a social good. I honestly don't see any downside. Probably taxes should be kept low for the first five years so that the crime syndicates in Mexico would not be able to undercut the price, and would be largely put out of business. For hard drugs I would advocate legalization also but very tough regulation and high taxation to make them very expensive. In addition to lowering the prison population, legalization of drugs would reduce the killing in Mexico and the cross border illegal shipments of guns and cash from the US. The border situation with illegal guns, money and immigrants could be normalized. It would be a step in the right direction towards increasing border security.
Along with legalization of drugs, education about the effects of using drugs and addiction in general whether it be drugs, food or sex as well as programs for getting people who want to quit the drug habit off of drugs should be stepped up. Public schools should teach students not only about drugs but other life skills such as how to deal with finances. Sex education is a necessity if for no other reason than US media culture is permeated and saturated with gratuitous sexual messaging. The cultural winds blowing on impressionable minds glorify sex, drugs, violence and consumerism. Public education needs to combat these forces. Perhaps this is why Republicans are dead set on destroying the public education system.
Wesley's Comments
As far as I am concerned if someone wants to indulge themselves with a present day illegal substance, let them. No stigma, but absolute enforcement of laws governing conduct, driving and work place sobriety standards. Give no quarter and make the penalties extremely severe.
I don't give a damn if someone dies of an overdose whether it be drugs or alcohol. If a person has so little self control, or self respect, perhaps society would be better off without them. You use it and end up hooked, you have no one to blame but yourself - suffer the consequences. If the government is involved (which it will be), there has to be a way of recouping expenses besides excise taxes. Those desiring rehabilitation can volunteer for it, and those convicted of non-injurious drug use should be sentenced to a project similar to the CCC or WPA of the Depression era. Anyone convicted of drug use resulting in injury or death of another should be executed.
You and some readers might think me insensitive and unreasonable at the least, and, more than likely, far worse. So be it. It is time our society wakes up to the fact that we, individually, are responsible not only to ourselves, but to society as a whole. It is not mine, nor anyone else's financial responsibility, to support the indulgent behavior of others, and that will be the 800 pound gorilla in the room. More public assistance to the weak willed, over and above the tax revenues collected, is not called for.
In my estimation the only things not eliminated by legalization of drugs are things for which one can be prosecuted due to other infractions of the law not having anything to do with drugs per se. Every other aspect whether legal or illegal should remain the same, but will probably get worse if drugs are legalized because of the additional laws and standards required. Catch 22 comes to mind.
I did not isolate my stand on drugs to MJ. Legalize them all just as it was up to the early parts of the 20th century. Opiates were an over the counter remedy for everything. Hells bells, there were even door to door salesmen peddling the stuff. Addiction, yes there was, but the primary difference today is that people are driving cars at 70 miles an hour. Now, thanks to OSHA, nearly all factory and work place tools and machinery are idiot proof so perhaps a mild buzz could be acceptable. Maybe even a little meth prescribed to senior citizens would speed up their reactions and the little old blue hair ladies that can barely see over the steering wheel can maintain freeway speeds.
I can foresee a definite improvement in traffic flow; and that time distance reaction thing, that is an acquired skill. I should know. I practiced steadily for a number of years with some of Kentucky's finest. Never had or caused an accident while under the influence of the stuff; it was the sober hours that were a problem. Probably a hangover thing and from what I have been told that is not a problem with MJ.
And as I wrote, if you cause injury or death while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, you should face a MANDATORY death sentence. No incarceration, no rehab, no counseling, no appeals. The sentence to be carried out right after being found guilty. NO delay.
End of Wesley's Comments
John's Comment on Wesley's Comments
Wayne, what about a minor injury? Surely you wouldn't recommend putting someone to death for that even if under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I can see it for a head on collision in which innocent people in the other car are killed. There was a case like that here recently. I think the drunk guy who lived got 20-30 years in jail. I am for capital punishment in open and shut egregious cases, but not for those convicted based on eyewitness testimony which is notoriously inaccurate resulting in the incarceration and death of a lot of innocent people. A drunk driver causing an accident, on the other hand, is pretty much an open and shut case.
Frank's Essay:
DUTCH POLICY TOWARDS HARD AND SOFT DRUGS
Introduction
A country’s drug policy evolves slowly and reflects national conditions and culture. As punitive or other model drug laws have evolved in countries over the past century, so have the unique drug policy enforcement solutions pioneered by the Dutch. Their open minded attitudes toward illicit drugs, like toward prostitution, are driven by their peculiar societal values – a realistic, humane approach to social problems like drugs as a health-centered and social well-being matter, not primarily as a problem of the police and judiciary – values that embody:
- First, a long history of tolerance and pragmatism.
- Second, a strong belief in individual freedom, like deciding about private matters such as one’s own health, while also having a strong sense of responsibility for the community’s well-being.
- Third, a view of drug issues as manageable health and harm reduction matters – as “normal social problems” with real-life, scientific distinctions in relative risks – not an alien threat, a “forbidden fruit” perennially punishable by the criminal prosecution and imprisonment apparatus.
- Fourth, a non-absolutist ideological approach to social problems where criminal law is not perceived as enforcing social or religious morality, and government is expected to act with reserve on issues involving religion and moral questions.
- Fifth, a belief that hiding or taking a blind eye to negative social problems does not make them go away but only makes them more difficult and costly to control.
What is the Historical Trend in Drug Policy?
Repressive and indiscriminate drug policies adopted under the 1919 Opium Act slowly gave way to very grave doubts as to the effectiveness of that approach. In the 50s and 60s, harsh sentencing practices for drug offenses including cannabis did not deter a notable increase in consumption. So in 1976, the Dutch parliament amended the Act to focus on battling the risks of drug abuse for society and individuals rather than just fighting consumption itself. The pre-1976 policy of prohibition and penal measures paid scant attention to the human, social, psychological, economic fallout of hard and soft drug use and the need to prevent further human suffering and disease.
While the Opium Act criminalized drug possession, cultivation, trafficking, importing and exporting, the 1976 amendments and subsequent amendments have established two classes of drugs: (1) hard drugs deemed to be an unacceptable risk to public health including heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, LSD, ecstasy, hallucinogenic (magic) mushrooms; (2) tolerable traditional hemp-product soft drugs, marijuana and hashish. Dutch drug policy has pragmatically reverted to a new guideline of distinguishing drugs and related punishable acts based on their harm to the individual and to public health – a policy of minimizing the hazards and abuse of drug use rather than just suppressing all drugs … a policy addressing demand and supply that supports a certain degree of tolerance and non-prosecution rather than indiscriminate law enforcement.
The now amended 1976 Opium Act incorporates some unique strategies for reducing the harm of drug use and abuse:
- The prevention or alleviation of social and individual risks caused by drug use.
- A rational relation between those risks and policy measures, e.g., possessing, dealing in, selling, and producing drugs are criminal offenses with severe penalties for hard drugs. Drug possession for dealing is also more severely punished than possession for personal use which police generally take a soft approach to.
- A differentiation of policy measures that considers risks of legal and medical drugs.
- A police and judiciary that gives high priority to tackling the large-scale drug trade and production of drugs.
- Recognition of the inadequacy of criminal law concerning other aspects (i.e., apart from trafficking) of the drug problem.
- Not taking action against possession of small quantities of soft or hard drugs for personal consumption; tolerating (de facto legalizing) under strict conditions the consumption and traffic in soft drugs in youth centers and coffee houses where threshold quantities and the intent to deal determine personal possession, use, and trafficking offenses.
- A high law-enforcement priority of cracking down, levying stiff penalties on hard drugs trafficking and production – including exportation and importation, large-scale commercial cultivation of cannabis, ecstasy, amphetamines, and LSD.
- A “normalization” policy that treats drug problems as normal social problems, not as punishable deviant behavior only making societal control problems worse; a policy of integration and social rehabilitation of addicts; a policy of low threshold treatment acceptance, minimum paperwork, routine medical treatment services … all to avoid delaying care, marginalizing, stigmatizing, or isolating drug users.
- Early focus on health promotion to young people in particular of the benefits of universal drug prevention … through curricular school-based programs such as, “The Healthy School of Drugs” program – comprising lectures in secondary school on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis – and prevention outside school under the, “Going Out, Alcohol and Drugs” program – aimed at reducing health and safety problems among young people using drugs in recreational and party settings. Also, a wide range of support programs are offered to addicts with the goals to prevent and relieve risks of drug use for addicts, their immediate environment, and society as a whole.
What Are the Enforcement Principles and Rules?
The amended 1976 Opium Act still holds the possession of marijuana/hashish to be a petty misdemeanor today. But, even that offense is seldom enforced under the “expediency principle” in Dutch criminal law. This principle gives authorities discretionary powers to refrain from prosecuting certain offenses “on grounds derived from the public interest.” It applies to cases involving small quantities for personal use where there’s no dealing or other drug-related crime. Thus, cannabis and hashish are technically illegal but “tolerated.”
The “expediency principle” helps separate to the extent possible the recreational soft drug market – posing a minimal risk to society – from the true hard drug, criminal markets. The goal has been to separate distribution channels thereby greatly reducing the gateway from soft drugs to heroin and cocaine. It is felt this policy and the early educational school programs prevent experimenting youth from getting drawn into the dangerous criminal elements of the hard drug culture.
For the Dutch, drug use is a health matter not unlike the use of tobacco and alcohol. A paradigm of arresting and incarcerating thousands of citizens for minor drug possession or use offenses is not accepted. In stark contrast, Sweden views all forms of drug possession and use, regardless of quantities or drug type, as an abuse – while Portugal has decriminalized ALL drugs with favorable results. Each country must find its own way. For the Dutch, freedom to decide about matters relating to one’s own health is fundamental. So a visible, manageable retail market for cannabis was allowed to develop. But, as stated, wholesale dealers, traffickers, and large-scale cultivators of cannabis or hard drugs will be rewarded by the full force of the penal laws.
The Dutch do not see the separation of soft drugs from hard drugs and flexible law enforcement measures as some magical cure-all. The prime aim is prevention of health risks and the negative consequences for society arising from drug abuse. This involves educational measures where a restricted tolerance approach enables authorities to monitor and control better the social phenomena of drug abuse. Abuses are also fought by health measures such as treatment monitoring centers, extensive demand reduction and detoxification facilities, a free methadone supply program for heroin users, a free syringe exchange program, and free testing of ecstasy pills.
The lure of stepping-up to hard drugs is checked by allowing purchase of cannabis in alcohol-free coffee-shops. For evidence shows this separation of the market for illicit drugs means youthful cannabis users are less likely to slip into contact with hard drugs. Also, surveys show the vast majority of Dutch people never try marijuana. Most who do try it don’t continue to use it very often, much less hard drugs. Moreover, users know that cannabis is far safer than hard drugs and less addictive than even caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and many prescription drugs.
Coffee-shop regulations are very strict. Operators are legally and strictly bound to adhere to following rules:
- No alcohol or hard drugs may be sold or consumed in a coffee house. Driving under the influence of soft drugs is considered as driving under the influence of alcohol. Police check for this.
- No advertising, active promotion, web sites are allowed.
- Cannabis can only be sold to people aged 18 or over. No minors are allowed around or in coffee-shop premises.
- No sale of large quantities is allowed – the limit is 5 grams to one person in one day. This maximum amount is tolerated, not prosecuted, even though technically illegal.
- The coffee-shop must not be causing a public nuisance, e.g., must not be located within 250 meters of a school.
- The coffee-shop operator is allowed a maximum level of cannabis stock for selling of 500 grams, but local authorities can impose lower limits. Of course, no selling of hard drugs is allowed.
- The decision whether or not to tolerate coffee-shops lies entirely with the local municipalities. Smoking cannabis is banned in public places. (As of 2005, 72% of the 467 municipalities pursued a zero policy with regard to the number of tolerated coffee-shops).
- The local mayor is entitled to close a coffee-shop for violating any of the above rules (including being a public nuisance, e.g., disturbing a neighborhood’s public order and safety).
Why Drug Decriminalization and Tolerance?
The Dutch have normalized and decriminalized the soft and hard drug problem as a practical compromise between the extremes of an intensified war on drugs and legalization. Drug use is a fact of life. It must be discouraged, and the harm and risks minimized in a flexible, realistic manner. Under the Opium Act during 1919 to 1976, the Dutch learned this lesson the hard way when severe and disproportionate penalization failed to stop a steep rise in drug users and abusers. Continuing an all-out fight risked driving more and more drug users into the fringes of the underworld, making them hidden and beyond reach of any “helping” institution, other than the justice system. In short, a repressive, prohibitive approach led to negative side effects both for the individual and Dutch society.
The amended Opium Act of 1976 relegates criminal law to a relatively minor role in preventing individual drug abuse. However, as noted, cannabis and all other drugs are still statutorily illegal. But the law is not enforced for possession of small amounts for personal use or sale of small amounts in coffee-shops. So over the last 35 years, the goal has been to avoid situations where cannabis consumers suffer more damage from criminal proceedings than from use of the drug itself. A policy of tolerance for selling soft drugs in coffee-shops evolved on grounds it stops many users from contacting drug dealers and experimenting with hard drugs. Facts support this conclusion as the number of convictions, addicts, drug casualties in the Netherlands is one of the lowest in Europe and far below that of the US.
From Dutch perspectives, trying to eradicate drugs or drug addiction by criminal law makes the cure worse than the disease. On the other hand, unilateral formal legalization of soft drugs is not a goal and is unnecessary – not only because cannabis retail prices would drop further thus creating ever more “drugs tourism” – but mainly because Dutch courts have ruled that institutionalized non-enforcement in past years constitutes de facto decriminalization, i.e., a roughly legal regime for soft drugs. One thing is certain, however. Hard drugs are illegal and are unlikely to be legalized, at least in the near future. Some feel that the best argument for legalization is that it undermines outside-the-country drug cartels, often protected by terrorist groups. The Netherlands has never had the massive smuggling industry or a "next door" land route to the heart of drug country like the US has with Mexico. But imported drugs, for example, from Afghanistan to Dutch harbors and then channeled to the rest of Europe do remain a serious problem.
The outright banning of all coffee-shops is also not an option as it will not solve the problems of crime, street-drug trade, nuisance, and health. For the Dutch, it comes down to striking a careful balance between the rights of cannabis consumers and coffee-shop retailers and the Dutch government’s responsibility to public health and safety. This means setting fair and very strict limits of what can and cannot tolerated by all concerned.
Over-dramatization, criminalization, or moralization of the drug problem has thus given way to prevention, harm reduction and treatment policies … i.e., the promotion of healthy lifestyles. While comparisons to other countries show the Netherlands’ tolerant policy has worked well for decades, the country has its share of drug problems. But these are no more and often far less than many modern democracies which have much harsher drug laws and penalties.
Serious attention is being directed to the nuisance related by cannabis use by “drugs tourism” and by foreign drug addicts residing illegally. Amsterdam and Dutch cities near Germany and France have been under strain from the flow of EU “drugs tourists” who are taking advantage of the Netherlands’ more liberal soft drug laws. In Maastricht alone, 70% of the 2 million visitors to Maastricht’s 14 coffee-shops come from abroad. This has increased nuisance complaints regarding the hazards of drug runners luring tourists to coffee-shops, petty crime, and the smell of weed smoke. In their constant efforts to correct such policy shortcomings, the Dutch are about to implement nation-wide a “weed-pass” system to contain “drugs tourism.”
Coffee-shops will be turned into private clubs requiring proof of membership by a pass issued to adult Dutch citizens for use in one club only. Maastricht has already banned foreigners’ access to coffee-shops except neighboring Germans and Belgians … at some economic cost. For example, foreign visitors to Maastricht’s or Amsterdam’s coffee-shops spend up to €75/day ($100/day) for cannabis compared to €125-250/day ($90-180/day) on shopping, eating out and lodging.
Cannabis Penalization Policies and Penalties
Dutch penalization policy makes a sharp distinction between drug users and drug traffickers. Drug use is seen primarily as a public health, harm-reduction issue poorly addressed by a paradigm of punishment-based prohibition. Adult people can buy, possess or use small quantities without criminal sanctions. Research clearly shows that cannabis is a very safe drug. But possession of this soft drug for commercial purposes is a serious criminal offense, subject to some tough penalties. In 2010, one of the largest Dutch cannabis-selling coffee shops was fined €10 million ($13.5 million) and a 4 month prison term for keeping more than the allowed 500 grams of stock cannabis in the shop.
Today, Dutch cannabis is grown locally and only up to 40% is sold locally – the majority is exported. Producing and exporting cannabis, ecstasy or amphetamines illegally is thus becoming a major Dutch enforcement and penal priority given organized crime’s rising interest in the lucrative European cannabis market. Dutch police are under pressure to aggressively pursue, prosecute, and punish large-scale possession, dealing and cultivation of cannabis.
In this regard, decriminalization of soft drugs has brought key manpower and income benefits that can be redirected to healthy and productive public ends: (1) it frees up police enforcement manpower from petty abuses to fight commercial drug trafficking and production; (2) it yields substantial police, judiciary, and detention cost savings, and it generates €400-500 million ($540-675 million) in coffee-shop tax revenues yearly. These funds finance a wide range of drug actions: aggressive prosecution of illegal trafficking and production; a high standard of preventive care, counseling and educational information, medical treatment services for addicts, and special housing for long-term addicts. Little wonder that the number of addicts and deaths by overdose in the Netherlands is near the lowest in Europe and far lower than the US.
Furthermore, the Dutch government has announced it will classify cannabis with a THC level above 15% as a high potency, hard drug. Those coffee-shops selling cannabis with 17-18% THC levels today will have to use milder cannabis variants. This action plus strict regulation of a fast growing number of synthetic drugs; closure of coffee-shops within 250 meters of a school; shutdown of over 400 coffee-shops from 1179 in 1997 to ± 680 today (a 40% decrease) for reasons of nuisance, disturbance and other violations; a “weed pass;” and a stepped-up attack on trafficking and Dutch production of cannabis reflect a determination to adjust the country’s drug policy to new market realities – even if that means reversing tolerance policies.
Here’s a brief summary of the penalties for drug offenses:
- Possessing up to 30 grams of cannabis for personal use is a minor offense with a maximum detention of 1 month (and/or a fine of €2,250/$3,000). But this penalty is not usually enforced.
- Possessing more than 30 grams of cannabis, regardless of the quantity, is a criminal offense with a maximum detention of 2 years (and/or a fine of €25,000/$34,000).
- Importing/exporting soft drugs is a criminal offense with a maximum detention of 4 years (and/or a fine of €45,000/$60,000). Penalties are increased for repeated offenses.
- Buying, selling, producing, transporting soft drugs for commercial purposes is a criminal offense with a minimum detention of 1 month (and/or a fine) up to 8 years (and/or a fine of €45,000/$60,000) depending on the quantity.
- Selling more than 5 grams to a client in any one day by a coffee-shop is a criminal offense. Coffee-shop owners or operators risk prosecution and being closed down (and/or big fines) for violating this or other coffee-shop rules as noted above.
What Are the Successes of Dutch Drug Policy?
Ambitious politicians, media, and other “experts” can’t resist spreading wildly exaggerated myths, misunderstandings, and misinformation in their disagreement with Dutch drug policy. This is not only dishonest but strange considering more and more global leaders have declared the “war on drugs” to be destructive and a failure. Many countries (and a small number of US states) have moved to various forms of decriminalizing low-level drug possession and adopting health-centered approaches to cut consumption, improve public health, and weaken the power of organized crime.
The pragmatic, pioneering Dutch approach of setting tolerance guidelines that make drug policy more visible are methods adopted by most EU countries. Decriminalizing the possession of soft drugs has not led to a rise in their use. There’s ample empirical evidence that removal of criminal provisions for cannabis possession does not markedly increase the prevalence of cannabis or any other illicit drug. Studies by the Trimbus Institute on drug addiction and mental health show that 5% of Dutch citizens smoked marijuana or hashish in the past year compared to an average of 7% in the rest of Europe. Supporting statistics are noted in TABLE 1:
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TABLE 1: COMPARISON OF NETHERLANDS AND US PRISON INMATES AND PERCENTAGE DRUG OFFENDERS – 2009
Inmates Per % Drug
100,000 Population Offenders
Netherlands 100 19%
US 760 53% = Federal Prisons
19% = State Prisons
SOURCE: OECD Factbook, Economic, Environmental, Social Statistics, 2010
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The US percentage of total marijuana arrests was 52% of total drug arrests with arrests for possession increasing significantly from 34% in 1995 to 46% in 2010. No wonder US prisons are bursting with drug offenders, most of whom would probably not be in prison now if possession of 1 ounce or less had not been criminalized in a majority of states. As one expert said, “The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners.”
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TABLE 2: COMPARISON OF NETHERLANDS AND US USE OF DRUGS BY PERCENTAGES – 2008
Netherlands United States
Ever Used Marijuana 22.6% 41.0%
Ever Used Cocaine 3.4% 14.7%
Ever Used Heroin 0.6% 1.5%
SOURCE: Wikipedia, EMCDDA, Get The Facts –Drug War Facts. Org., “The Netherlands Compared With The US”
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The above demonstrates that de facto legalization to purchase marijuana in the Netherlands has not given rise to marijuana levels of use – nor cocaine or heroin use – significantly higher than those in countries like France, Sweden and the US which pursue repressive drug policies. The Dutch intense policy of prevention and care has made drug addicts healthier and HIV prevalence even lower than in many countries where HIV infections are already very low. The Dutch government reports there are about 25,000 hard drug addicts or 1.6 per 1000 people. This is well below the EU average.
TABLE 3 illustrates the relative drug health treatment intensity for selected countries:
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TABLE 3: DRUG USERS ENTERING TREATMENT UNITS, 1998- 2008
(Data on all patients using hard drugs)
1998 2008 Per 100,000
Netherlands 9209 10132 61
US NA 1144000 366
Germany 13967 62835 77
France 25118 43486 66
Sweden 3394 6017 100
SOURCES: EMCDDA Annual Report 2008; Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Resource Center, “Stats on Drug Rehab by Types of Drugs Used,” November 14, 2011
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US, France, and Sweden have prohibitionist drug regimes for all drugs while Germany and the Netherlands have de facto decriminalization regimes for soft drugs. The US has at least 6 times more drug-user treatments/rehabs per 100,000 people than the Netherlands where HIV infections are also very low. This situation and the US doorway to a gigantic flow of drugs from its close-by neighbor, Mexico, make US legalizing or decriminalizing of drugs more complex and problematic. In contrast, the Dutch produce all of their cannabis consumption needs locally. And the level of hard drug consumption is very low. Another factor is that the Netherlands, third most densely populated country in the world, has 16.5 million people living on a land territory one-fourth the size of New York state (or one-half the size of my state of Maine). This also makes hands-on policy implementation, oversight and control of drugs relatively easier.
Tolerating cannabis use and taxing it works for the Dutch … with the exception of ongoing new market challenges that are causing a rethink of tolerance policies, e.g., drugs tourism, coffee-shops’ selling to minors and creating a public nuisance, potentially dangerous ecstasy and synthetic drugs, and illegal export of cannabis abroad.
Dutch success emphasizing prevention and health care shows up in the number of drug related deaths which are very low averaging 120/year or less than .75 per 100,000 people. Deaths related to overdose of cannabis are unheard of. Hard drugs, or synthetic drugs combined with alcohol or prescription drugs can have certain bad medical, even deathly effects. While hard drug users are seldom prosecuted and heroin junkies have vanished from the streets into heroin-assisted treatment centers, potential intensification of health hazards and toxic addiction are key Dutch arguments for sticking by their decriminalized “harm-reduction” policy rather than legalizing all drugs at this time. But, debate and studies of this option live on.
The recent European Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction (EMCDDA) 2010 Annual Report on trends in drug use in Europe is a must reading of the facts and progress of EU countries with their reversion to mainly “Dutch-like” health-centered drug policies based on science and evidence. Overall, the report gives the Netherlands’ good marks for its drug policies:
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“The trend in cocaine and heroin addiction in the Netherlands is stabilizing, even decreasing. One percent of Dutch people aged between 15 and 34 is a recent cocaine user, well below the European average of 2.2%. The number of heroin clients in addiction care and rehabilitation facilities has decreased as well as has property-related crime ascribed to heroin users. But there are signs of an increase of (injected) heroin usage due to an influx of (mainly homeless) Eastern European immigrants.” |
Summary
Rather than wage war on drugs or legalize all drugs, the Dutch have taken a public health approach emphasizing “de facto decriminalization” and “normalization”… aimed at harm reduction, the integration of drug users in society, and the avoidance of stigmatizing, marginalizing, and isolating drug users.
Decriminalization has not resulted in any unusual increase in cannabis and hard drug use or abuse that poses a public threat … as confirmed by a 30-year Dutch experience and a truly excellent 2004 study by Craig Reinarman, PhD and his associates, “The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and in San Francisco.” However, trafficking, production, importing and exporting of drugs necessitates a relentless police pursuit and judicial prosecution effort.
The Dutch demand and supply approach to reducing the risks and harm of drugs has proven to be sane and successful. Cannabis and hard drugs are better controlled openly in a safe environment rather than in the wilds of the dangerous street-drug trade or in a prison complex.
Since hard drug use is seen as a social and medical issue not punished for the behavior alone, the emphasis is on health risk reduction and treatment. The Dutch government is able to aid about 90% of help-seeking addicts for detoxification programs. Regional and local authorities are responsible for the organization, implementation, and coordination of addiction care. Treatment is mainly delivered by non-governmental organizations on a regional level, followed by private organizations including physicians, hospitals, and private clinics. And treatment costs are at least 6 times less than trying to reduce consumption by mandatory prison sentences .. more enforcement .. higher penalties .. all leading to a dead end.
Finally, there’s that very important cash flow from coffee-shop value added taxes and income tax revenues that can be applied to drugs enforcement, prevention and treatment.
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REFERENCES : Dutch Policy Towards Hard Drugs and Soft Drugs ______________________________________________________
1. European Monitoring Centre For Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Annual Report 2010 – “The State of the Drugs Problem in Europe”
2. Report to the EMCDDA by the Reitox National Focal Point: “The Netherlands Drug Situation in 2010,” Dec. 22, 2010
3. “Trends in Drug Usage in Europe,” A Response to the EMCDDA 2010 Annual Report, 2011
4. Reaction of Trimbus Institut to the EMCDDA Annual Report 2011, by Margriet van Laar, Head of Drug Monitoring, November 15, 2011
5. “Dutch Reclassify High-Potency Marijuana As Hard Drug,” Associated Press, Toby Sterling, Oct. 7, 2011 and World News Netherlands, Oct. 7, 2011
6. Get the Facts- Drug War Facts.Org.: “The Netherlands Compared to the U.S.,” 2009
7. “The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and in San Francisco,” 2004, by Craig Reinaraman, PhD; Peter Cohen, PhD; Hendrien Kaal, PhD., 2004
8. “National Drug Policy: The Netherlands,” by Benjamin Dolin of Law and Government Division, Parliament of Canada, Aug. 15, 2001
9. “Dutch Drug Policy: A Model for America?” In press for: JOURNAL OF HEALTH & SOCIAL POLICY, by David F. Duncan, Dr. P.H. CAS, Thomas Nicholson, PhD, 1997
10. “The Dutch Harm Reduction Model of Addiction Treatment,” Addiction Services, Amsterdam Wiki, April 3, 2009
11. “Normalization of the Drugs Problem: An Outline of the Dutch Drugs Policy,” by Otto Janssen, June 1992
12. “Marijuana: The Myths Are Killing Us,” by Karen P. Tandy of DEA, June 17, 2005
13. “The Myths of Drug Legalization,” AMERICA, The National Catholic Weekly, March 16, 1996, by Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
14. “Drugs Policy in the Netherlands,” by UK Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, The Netherlands, April 1997
15. “Dutch Drug Policy In A European Context,” by Tim Boekhout van Solinge, Journal of Drug Issues – Vol.29, No.3, 1999
16. “Soft Drugs in the Netherlands,” By Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Sept. 2009
17. “Honor Thy Promise: Why the Dutch Drug Policies Should Not Be a Barrier to the Full Implementation of the Schengen Agreement,”Boston College International & Comparative Law Review (Vol.23, Issue 1, Article 8)) by Susan H. Easton, Dec. 12, 1999
Frank Thomas
The Netherlands
November 15, 2011
John's Comment on Frank's Essay:
Clearly, the Dutch methods are working and superior to those in the US. First, effective and thorough studies of the problem reveal what does and what doesn't work. Then Dutch pragmatism and a willingness to implement those policies that are working and reject those policies that are not working lead to a rational solution to the problem. Instead of viewing drug policy as strictly a law enforcement problem, the Dutch have an integrated approach which includes treatment while allowing for the recreational use of soft drugs which under well defined circumstances can even be considered a social good much as the recreational use of alcohol can be considered a social good when used in moderation. At a time when a majority of the American population favors legalization of marijuana, US policy makers should study the Dutch policy on drugs as an example of what works. Last year in the US there were more deaths from the misuse of prescription drugs than from illegal drugs. Drug use in general is a problem that needs to be solved by education, treatment and rehabilitation instead of relying on the criminal justice system while allowing for the moderate use of recreational drugs just as alcohol, caffeine and nicotine when used in moderation have been tolerated for many years. All in all the Dutch approach is intelligent and humane without a lot of moralizing or implementation of preconceived prejudices.
