Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The drugs policy of the Netherlands is based on two principles: Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal matter The distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs Table of contents 1 Public health 2 Hard drugs/soft drugs 3 Non-enforcement 4 Drug law enforcement 5 External link Public health The use of drugs in general is not prohibited, on the general principle of self-determination in matters of the body. It is legal to hurt yourself even if it is harmful to society; however, you remain liable for the consequences of your actions. Because of this, drug takers are not prosecuted for possession of small quantities of drugs ("for personal use"). Driving under the influence of drugs is nevertheless prohibited, as is being under the influence in public (of either alcohol or drugs), mainly from a public nuisance perspective. Hard drugs/soft drugs A distinction is drawn between hard drugs (which bear "unacceptable" risks) such as cocaine and heroin, and soft drugs such as the cannabis products hashish and marijuana (as defined in the Opium Act). The decision is based on whether the substance is only psychologically addictive or also physically addictive. One of the main aims of this policy is to separate the markets for soft and hard drugs so that soft drug users are less likely to come into contact with hard drugs. So-called coffeeshops are allowed to sell soft drugs openly, and to keep supplies greater than the amounts allowed by law for personal use, though they are only allowed to sell individual customers the amount allowed for personal use. The coffeeshops' wholesale suppliers, however, are still criminalized. In practice the limit to the "for personal use" clause is four cannabis plants per person for growing, or 5 grams of hashish or marijuana per person. Large-scale dealers, and especially production, import and export, are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, even if they do not supply end users or coffeeshops with more than the allowed amounts. Exactly how coffeeshops get their supplies is rarely investigated, however. Non-enforcement Cannabis remains a controlled substance in the Netherlands and both possession and production for personal use are still misdemeanors, punishable by fine. Coffeeshops are also illegal according to the statutes. However, a policy of non-enforcement has led to a situation where reliance upon non-enforcement has become common, and because of this the courts have ruled against the government when individual cases were prosecuted. This is because the Dutch Ministry of Justice applies a gedoogbeleid (policy of tolerance) with regard to soft drugs: an official set of guidelines telling public prosecutors under which circumstances offenders should not be prosecuted. This is a more official version of the common practice in other countries, in which law enforcement sets priorities as to which offenses are important enough to spend limited resources on. Proponents of gedoogbeleid argue that such a policy offers more consistency in legal protection in practice, than without it. Opponents of the Dutch drug policy either call for full legalization, or argue that laws should penalize morally wrong or decadent behavior, whether this is enforceable or not. In the Dutch courts, however, it has long been determined that the institutionalized non-enforcement of statutes with well defined limits constitutes de facto decriminalization. The statutes are kept on the books mainly due to international pressure. Drug law enforcement Despite the high priority given by the Dutch government to fighting narcotics trafficking, the Netherlands continues to be an important transit point for drugs entering Europe, a major producer and exporter of amphetamines and other synthetic drugs, and an important consumer of illicit drugs. The exportation of the synthetic drug ecstasy to the U.S. during 1999 reached epidemic proportions. The Netherlands' special synthetic drug unit, set up in 1997 to coordinate the fight against designer drugs, appears to be successful. The government has stepped up border controls and intensified cooperation with neighboring countries. Although drug use, as opposed to trafficking, is seen primarily as a public health issue, responsibility for drug policy is shared by both the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sports, and the Ministry of Justice. The Netherlands spends more than €130 million annually on facilities for addicts, of which about fifty percent goes to drug addicts. The Netherlands has extensive demand reduction programs, reaching about ninety percent of the country's 25,000 to 28,000 hard drug users. The number of hard drug addicts has stabilized in the past few years and their average age has risen to 38. The number of drug-related deaths in the country remains the lowest in Europe. External link http://www.minjust.nl/b_organ/wodc/publicaties/overige/pdf/ewb03cof.pdf - report on "coffee shops" in the Netherlands, in Dutch with summary in English. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.