Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
Hans van Duijn, head of the Dutch police union, told Radio Netherlands Wednesday that the struggle to arrest marijuana growers and providers was pointless and that marijuana should just be legalized. Under Dutch practice, the sale and consumption of small amounts of marijuana are illegal but tolerated, while police continue to seek to arrest the people who supply the coffee shops where the weed is sold, as well as people who are growing or selling outside the coffee house system.
But attempting to arrest growers and suppliers detracts from police ability to deal with other, more serious, crime issues, van Duijn said. Unfortunately, the retiring union head added, Dutch politicians are reluctant to consider that possibility because of international pressure. They are "sticking their heads in the sand," he said.
Van Duijn also called for letting hard-core drug addicts use drugs under supervision. He said that is the only effective way to fight crime.
Meanwhile, the substitute lord mayor of Terneuzen, a city of 60,000 close to the Belgian border, has called for a pilot program for legal marijuana cultivation. Access to a legal supply of marijuana would solve the "backdoor problem" for the Dutch, wherein coffee shops can sell the weed, but no one can legally provide it for them. Substitute Lord Mayor Co Van Schaik told the Dutch news source PZC it was time for such a program.
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Comments
U go Dutch homies
dont listen to my government,our ciountry is heading into a reccession and they are more about passing new criminal bills here and abroad then the economy colapsing!!! They just started to outlaw salivia wich is a plant they say is like a smokeable LSD,B>S!! I tried it 1 time and all it is is another money making propaganda by the thugs in the DEA and white house. Legalize and regulate and prove to MY government that your methood is THE way 4 the WHOLE world to go.
-- A pissed off American who hates being one 4 the merrer fact alcohol is legal and cannabis isnt!!
And I love THE USA
but dang people we pay taxes,have kids,hold jobs(or at least try to with all the drug tests)go to school and just want to be like our elders who once were criminalized during alchol prohibition and freed! FREE US,our families...and make the billions to save our economy by regulating and taxing it as alcohol is according to 500 economists and FORBES magazine!! Politicians are addicted to passing laws,drug laws and unconstitutional according to George washington,Thomas Jeferson and Payne!!!!! Dam you Alinsger and dam you Nixon!!! I never hurt none and i smoke a joint a day to keep the lies away...and it works lol
Alcohol and pot
Alcohol is lethal yet pot is not;
Acohol is legal yet pot is not.
Does that make any sense at all?
Of course not.
Please i hope so
Let's finally have at least one place in the world where pot is completely legal.
The Dutch are apparently the most humane society on the planet!!
We may finally have one nation under god with liberty and justice for all rather than all nations under corporate interests with liberty and justice for all who don't violate corporate policies or archaic moralist values of the minority...
I am truly disappoiinted in
I am truly disappoiinted in the US. Good folks locked away for years. Ruins familys and makes criminals out of us all! Time to get a grip! Leagilize
In reply to I am truly disappoiinted in by Anonymous (not verified)
Ambarrassed by my country... more often then not!
Can't really think of anything the purveyors of gods & gov't have done within the past 2 decades to be proud of!
I've noticed how europeans... that once appreciated my presence... now only seem interested in my money... and wish they could get it from non-americans.
Thanks to the disasterous bush administration we are seen as ignorant cowboys trying to milk bulls, and rule the world, in the name of antiquity (god) & demonacracy (gov't).
There's definetly a well deserved chill towards the apathy, and non-vigilance, of americans to control their creepy criminal christian imperialistic gov't.
Just say no to god & gov't!
Let's hope for the best
But the fact is that the EU is giving the Dutch a lot of pressure to criminalize marijuana completely, to the standard of the other countries... This is due to the trend of making all EU countries uniform in legislation, culture, everything... a real shame too, destroying the cultural heritage (like that of Netherlands) along with it. And another reason: the fact that marijuana trafficing from the Netherlands to other EU countries is very active, there are many giant busts of Dutch trucks that I've read about personally.
Let's hope that this pro-marijuana attitude might spread to all other EU countries as well, though it's a frail hope.
Dutch = Kings of Common Sense
Here's something else the 'creepy christians on the right' and the 'criminalcrats on the left' don't want you to know.
Mature countries that educate about sex & drugs... instead of killing or incarcerating... have the lowest abuse rates... something libertarians have known for decades but the delusional addicts & idiots on the left and right willfully ignore or challenge!
Problem of course is it's extrememly hard to have a modern egilitarian society while the majority of americans... claiming to be republican or democrat are highly delusional... addicted to gods & gov'ts... the 2 greatest obstacles to our Rights, Freedoms, and Liberties... not the solution!
Just say no to god & gov't... they are the roots of all evil!
In reply to Dutch = Kings of Common Sense by Anonymous (not verified)
don't criminalise law abiding/ supporting/ tax paying citizens
This whole "War" is totally crazy and hypocritical. The total opium production of Afganistan, i.e. over 90% of world production , could be purchased from the farmers for around $2 billion, factors of ten less than the cost of the current war. No brainer???
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