For Safe and Effective Drug Policy, Look to the Dutch

[pgallahue]

For Safe and Effective Drug Policy, Look to the Dutch
by Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, Global Drug Policy Program

Why has the Netherlands—a country sometimes viewed as having a permissive approach to drugs—had better results than so many governments with much more strict policies?

A new report by the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program shows how the Netherlands maintained low rates of HIV among people who use drugs and comparatively low cannabis use among young people, all while avoiding the enforcement-heavy measures of its neighbors.

Click here to read more: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/safe-and-effective-drug-policy-look-dutch

[ejpoeta]

1. very interesting read. and eye opening.

so it seems that perhaps the only reason marijuana may be a 'gateway drug' at all has to do with where you get the stuff. if you get it from someone selling harder stuff, this increases the chances of going to harder stuff. But divorce marijuana from other drugs and that step up to other stuff tends to disappear. That makes sense. Plus it makes sense to me to not arrest everyone with marijuana residue on them. Another way to send people to harder drugs. Very interesting.

[pgallahue]

2. Gateway

Thanks for reply. It'll be interesting to see how all this shakes out in WA and CO.

[RainDog]

3. how the Netherlands got to where they are

The Netherlands, like most of Northern Europe, went through a big transformation after WWII.

God died in the concentration camps across Europe, and this lack of religious prohibition made it possible for those nations to consider options, other than punishment, for what have traditionally been viewed as "sin" issues with sin laws to keep them that way.

The U.S. is so infected with religious extremism, I wonder what it would take for legislators here to actually think about issues in terms of the well being of the nation.

The current Republican Party is so extremist - religious extremist - I simply think they're too stupid to be able to actually think about any issue - and especially ones that have been labeled "sin" issues.

It's really, really sad to know that your elected officials are too fucking stupid to hold the offices they do - but the current Republican Party is the most idiotic bunch of losers I have ever seen.

[CanSocDem]

4. Good post...

...and the point about the religious influence in the criminal code is spot on.

" The U.S. is so infected with religious extremism, I wonder what it would take for legislators here to actually think about issues in terms of the well being of the nation."

It could be out of respect for the locale that you blame only Republicans, but, in my experience, religious values permeate the entire culture. They are the foundation of American capitalism with their hierarchy of 'worth' and the ritualistic practice of consumerism.

Thankfully this bizarre take on the world has been quarantined to North America.


.

[RainDog]

5. well, yes

The Democrats who consider themselves representative of the muddled middle, and the conservatives in the Democratic Party, have not been able to think outside of the Puritan box either.

...and Democrats have been responsible for many of the bad responses to the American voters' increasing support for full legalization (and long-time large majority support for legalization of medical marijuana.)

Clinton reacted to California's quasi-legal medical marijuana by unleashing the DEA there - and as a result of their policies, they are directly responsible for the death of one well-known HIV/cancer patient who was also an author.

The strain of religious extremism in the U.S. is matched by its mirror image in other monotheisms. Different faces of the same regressive mindset.

I honestly do not understand why the U.S. has maintained such a large population of religious extremists, since other nations have histories of the same. But other western democracies seem to have been able to move beyond the simplistic thinking of religious conservatism and are, for the most part, less juvenile in their educational outcomes.

The hypocrisy of most American politicians is stunning. Once they leave office, they tend to speak with more truth. But the reason for this is because the religious extremists demand fealty to their faulty thinking and are, overall, far more motivated to vote. That's another difference. In the U.S., there is no penalty for not voting and, so, those with ideological axes to grind tend to vote more regularly than those who don't want to punish others for victimless crimes.