While ignoring the posts which say nothing but "drugs suck" or "drugs are cool" since they contain no arguments and are merely wasting valuable space on this forum and my valuable time in reading all of it, I want to react on a few more worthy posts I've read. Curiously I have seen none of the latter (drugs=cool) and some 4 or 5 of the former (drugs suck), which does not suggest a higher instance of drug-related brain-damage in the "pro-dopers".
As I live in Amsterdam I do not have to worry about police reading my posts since in principle I could go out right now, buy some marihuana in a coffeeshop (which is the name for the semi-legal selling place), squat down in front of the nearest police station and smoke one joint after the other, without running any risk.
I want to support Allan in the most strongest terms (whose government sees fit to brand him a criminal), and being in the camp of the "pro-dopers", I must state for the record that I do not smoke pot, nor have smoked it in the last two or three years. I never had any problem quitting on marihuana but simply grew tired of it ("grew out of it" as it where, as a phase in my adolescence). Many posts i've read give examples of people who where destroyed by drugs. Whereas tragic, this does not constitute a valid argument to ban all drugs, since there are many things that can destroy people (loose gun laws, cars, love etc.) which nobody seriously would consider to ban. (curiously, the most fanatic anti-drugs crusaders in the US, also call for loose gun laws, which seems somewhat inconsistent). I know many people who have tried various kinds of drugs, none of them are unproductive, unemployed or engage in criminal activities (instead they go to university or work in well-paying jobs) and none of them seem "addicted" in the sense that they crave drugs at regular intervals (with the marked exception of cigarettes). Nonetheless some people do "abuse drugs" in the classic sense. Of course we have our junkies in Amsterdam. The past century the world has tried to alleviate these problems by engaging the various departments of justice (with the USA with their war on drugs leading the way), increasingly there is a tendency to let the departments of health handle drug-related problems.
Experiments in the Netherlands and Switzerland are promising. Drug use is generally lower or equal to that in "war on drugs"-countries. Education on drugs is considered normal and not seen as "promoting drugs to children" or giving the go-ahead to them. In fact, they are warned in the strongest terms about what drugs can do to people, while remaining fair and not painting an overdramatic picture. It costs way less tax-payers money (even in holland 30% of prisoners have a drugs-related sentence) and frees up police officers to do some "real" crime-fighting. And finally health problems of people who do use drugs are less severe. For example: the government hands out clean needles to heroine-users to prevent the transmission of AIDS through needle sharing. Germany, the UK and even France (formerly a severe critic of the dutch policy (they even went so far as naming us a "narco-state", which resulted in a indignated outcry of Dutch politicians and civilians alike)) look more and more favorable to adopting (parts of) this policy in their own countries, given the positive results in the Netherlands. The problem is we cannot experiment even further in this policy as long as other countries do not join us, since foreign drug-traders will buy in this country then sell in countries where drug-consumption is still prohibited, also we are bound by international treaties. Unfortunately the USA exerts a lot of pressure on all countries to join the "war on drugs" which does not allow experimenting with different solutions. If I where a conspiracy-theorist I would say it is partly the work of american privatized prisons which are lobbying succesfully at the hill and have a definite interest in keeping those prison-sentences for drug-possession as high as possible.
PS: I do not presume to state "the" Dutch-viewpoint here, since there are undoubtedly many Dutch people who would disagree with what i've said here.
PPS: Drugs are not "fully decriminalized" in the Netherlands as was stated in the first post of this topic, not even marihuana, possession of up to five grams is legal, selling in places designated as "coffeeshops" is legal, growing up to 5 plants at home for personal use is legal and prescription of marihuana by doctors for patients suffering from for example cancer and auto-immune-disease is legal. If it was decriminalized the Netherlands would be in blatant violation of the international "Schengen"-treaty.
As I live in Amsterdam I do not have to worry about police reading my posts since in principle I could go out right now, buy some marihuana in a coffeeshop (which is the name for the semi-legal selling place), squat down in front of the nearest police station and smoke one joint after the other, without running any risk.
I want to support Allan in the most strongest terms (whose government sees fit to brand him a criminal), and being in the camp of the "pro-dopers", I must state for the record that I do not smoke pot, nor have smoked it in the last two or three years. I never had any problem quitting on marihuana but simply grew tired of it ("grew out of it" as it where, as a phase in my adolescence). Many posts i've read give examples of people who where destroyed by drugs. Whereas tragic, this does not constitute a valid argument to ban all drugs, since there are many things that can destroy people (loose gun laws, cars, love etc.) which nobody seriously would consider to ban. (curiously, the most fanatic anti-drugs crusaders in the US, also call for loose gun laws, which seems somewhat inconsistent). I know many people who have tried various kinds of drugs, none of them are unproductive, unemployed or engage in criminal activities (instead they go to university or work in well-paying jobs) and none of them seem "addicted" in the sense that they crave drugs at regular intervals (with the marked exception of cigarettes). Nonetheless some people do "abuse drugs" in the classic sense. Of course we have our junkies in Amsterdam. The past century the world has tried to alleviate these problems by engaging the various departments of justice (with the USA with their war on drugs leading the way), increasingly there is a tendency to let the departments of health handle drug-related problems.
Experiments in the Netherlands and Switzerland are promising. Drug use is generally lower or equal to that in "war on drugs"-countries. Education on drugs is considered normal and not seen as "promoting drugs to children" or giving the go-ahead to them. In fact, they are warned in the strongest terms about what drugs can do to people, while remaining fair and not painting an overdramatic picture. It costs way less tax-payers money (even in holland 30% of prisoners have a drugs-related sentence) and frees up police officers to do some "real" crime-fighting. And finally health problems of people who do use drugs are less severe. For example: the government hands out clean needles to heroine-users to prevent the transmission of AIDS through needle sharing. Germany, the UK and even France (formerly a severe critic of the dutch policy (they even went so far as naming us a "narco-state", which resulted in a indignated outcry of Dutch politicians and civilians alike)) look more and more favorable to adopting (parts of) this policy in their own countries, given the positive results in the Netherlands. The problem is we cannot experiment even further in this policy as long as other countries do not join us, since foreign drug-traders will buy in this country then sell in countries where drug-consumption is still prohibited, also we are bound by international treaties. Unfortunately the USA exerts a lot of pressure on all countries to join the "war on drugs" which does not allow experimenting with different solutions. If I where a conspiracy-theorist I would say it is partly the work of american privatized prisons which are lobbying succesfully at the hill and have a definite interest in keeping those prison-sentences for drug-possession as high as possible.
PS: I do not presume to state "the" Dutch-viewpoint here, since there are undoubtedly many Dutch people who would disagree with what i've said here.
PPS: Drugs are not "fully decriminalized" in the Netherlands as was stated in the first post of this topic, not even marihuana, possession of up to five grams is legal, selling in places designated as "coffeeshops" is legal, growing up to 5 plants at home for personal use is legal and prescription of marihuana by doctors for patients suffering from for example cancer and auto-immune-disease is legal. If it was decriminalized the Netherlands would be in blatant violation of the international "Schengen"-treaty.
