Netherlands Rated More Stable and Prosperous Than U.S.
A new global study ranks the Netherlands 9th in the world in stability and prosperity. The U.S. follows at a distant 22nd. I'll give you one guess where I'm going with this. Ok, times up. If you said, "Scott will argue that superior quality of life in the Netherlands proves that an enlightened marijuana policy won't destroy society," you win a cookie.
Indeed, superior quality of life in the Netherlands proves that an enlightened marijuana policy won’t destroy society, and there are no complications which ought to prevent anyone from understanding this. A bunch of white Europeans have been prancing around for decades allowing one another to sell and smoke marijuana openly, culminating in their designation as the 9th best nation in the world. Not to mention their progressive policies on psychedelic mushrooms, safe injection sites, drug sentencing, and criminal justice spending, none of which have produced outcomes resembling those we've been told to expect should we abandon our obscenely harsh approach to these matters here in the U.S. The numbers speak for themselves.
If you ask a drug warrior about this, they will change the subject, but it is just a fact that you can allow adults to manufacture, distribute, and consume marijuana and everything will be fine.
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Comment posted by ph0ed1n on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 8:32amIn "What Americans Need to Know About Marijuana", the ONDCP propaganda piece (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/pdf/mj_rev.pdf):
"...marijuana use between 1984 and 1996 nearly tripled -- from15 percent to 44 percent -- among 18- to 20-year-old Dutch youth."
The citation number next to that quote is 56, which is:
"MacCoun, R., & Reuter, P. Interpreting Dutch cannabis policy: Reasoning by analogy in the legalization debate. Science. 278, 47-52, 1997"
In "Interpreting Dutch cannabis policy...", here's the quote that the cherry-picking U.S. government prohibitionists conveniently (unethically) missed:
"We conclude that Dutch rates now are comparable to that of the United States..."
The speculation that drug use would skyrocket upon legalization assumes that prohibition is effective, which a document credible enough to the prohibitionists to quote from, clearly concludes (over a decade ago) otherwise.
To prohibitionists, this has never been about truth. This is about perceived truth. They win, because they, by their much stronger public relations, determine what is truth in the minds of the majority of the public.
We are slowly (but surely) crushing their lies, thanks to the fine folks wielding the Internet to undermine the mainstream media.
The inevitable CSA-ending breakthrough will happen faster if we tap into the mainstream via a strong national public relations campaign supported by undeniable truth.
Truth (the real kind, not the lying kind) always prevails, eventually.
CIA Fact Book
Comment posted by ph0ed1n on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 8:43amHere's some U.S. government data comparing the two countries.
The Netherlands: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nl.html
The U.S.: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
Example:
Average life expectancy in The Netherlands is 79.11 years.
Average life expectancy in The U.S. is 78 years.
Bravo!
Comment posted by smcmullin2001 on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 9:13amMany sage comments here.
Funny thing is that in Holland only around 10% of the population has ever actually tried cannabis. Most of the business is done with tourists (Americans, mostly). The great thing about the policy of tolerance that exists here — although it's not as tolerant as many think, and getting less so all the time — is that it offers the option.
I don't drink alcohol or do any other drugs, but I do like a nice joint of an evening. I used to live in Ireland, where this simple act made me a criminal. However, alcohol, the number one killer on Irish streets/roads/wherever, is actively encouraged by a government in thrall to (and largely with membership of) the Vinters Federation. Beer makes me sick and I can feel it killing me, so why don't I have another option if I want to unwind and, let's call a spade a spade, get off my face?
Nope. Gotta use the booze, otherwise yoo lose! How dare you sit, eat nachos and giggle at movies when you should be out puking on streets, getting into fights and making dangerous advances at young women!
Adaptability Quotient
Comment posted by Giordano on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 11:59amAlmost two decades ago, one of their own, the head of narcotics enforcement in the Netherlands, publicly proclaimed in a film interview produced by drug reformer Arnold Trebach, that marijuana is “No problem—no problem whatsoever.”
Regarding the Netherlands’ marijuana policy, the question that remains is what forces are at work in the United States that stop it from being a self-correcting society like the Netherlands?
If an answer can be found to this question, it will go a long way toward solving a number of different problems in addition to that of drug prohibition.
Giordano
Thanks!
Comment posted by smorgan on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 9:56pmOne point though: That Sweden, which has repressive drug policies, tops the list doesn't refute our argument. The important fact here is that a country with the type of drug policy we advocate is ranked in the top ten. This alone demonstrates the absurdity of any claim that marijuana must be illegal in order for a society to achieve prosperity.