Netherlands Drug Policy Foundation

Ratmond Dufour, president
Groot Heiiglwd 67, 2011 EP Haarlem (Nederland)
teL+ fax: 0031-23- 5310133
email: R.Dufour@planet.nl

MEMORANDUM, specifically prepared for the Home Affairs Committee: Evidence to the Inquiry on Drugs.

Members of the Committee,

Grateful for the opportunity you offer, the Netherlands Drug Policy Foundation would like to submit to you the following points.

1. Prohibition: the experience
The main objective of existing drugs policy is to prevent people from taking drugs. Its main instrument is the prohibition of production, sale and consumption of drugs.
To this objective the instrument clearly has failed. Prohibition has proven to be ineffective:
notwithstanding massive efforts of the police and judiciary, more drugs are being sold than ever and for lower prices.

2. Regulation: the experience
The 25-year long practice with a regulated sale of cannabis in The Netherlands by way of the so-called "coffeeshops" has resulted in less people being prosecuted and locked-up in jail. It has proven not to lead to more (problematic) use of cannabis, nor of other drugs (so much for the "stepping-stone" theory) than in the UK and other neighbouring countries. Neither have the regulatory measures regarding other drugs: the supply of methadon and heroine, as well of clean needles, users rooms and quality-inspection of party-pills (source: 2000 Annual Report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction EMCDDA in Lisbon).

3. Health
The health-problems in The Netherlands caused by drugs pale in comparison to alcohol and tobacco:
alcohol - 22 x more alcoholics than drug-addicts;
- 12 x more deaths caused by alcohol than by drugs (not including traffic-accidents by both);
tobacco - 133 x more deaths caused by tobacco than by drugs.
(sources: Governmental Paper on alcohol 2001-2003, Trimbos-Institute: Mensink & Spruit, 1998)
There seems to be no reason to suppose alcohol and tobacco problems in the Netherlands to be essentially higher than abroad.

4. Crime
Crime related to drugs is caused, not so much by drugs themselves, but by their prohibition. The prohibition provides a gold-mine for criminal organisations.
It also renders drugs costly: hence the stealing and other criminal acts committed by junks. Both aspects of drug-crime have caused half of the available prison-cells in The Netherlands to be occupied by producers, traffickers and users of drugs (source: personal information by high officials of the Justice Department and Police). This means that about half of total crime is related to the drugs-prohibition. Since in The Netherlands less drug-users and -sellers get convicted than in the UK, the percentage of drug-related crime in your country will probably not be lower.

5. Terrorism
The fight against terrorism will first and foremost be an intelligence war, and it will have to be met with determination and intelligence.
An essential point to consider is, how terrorist and criminal groups all over the world finance their activities.
There is little doubt that drugs-trafficking is one of their main sources of income. Osama Bin Laden specifically is said to be heavily involved in smuggling drugs (for an overview of research: seefi. the article in The Ottawa Citizen, Sept. 14 th by Dan Gardner: "Terrorists get cash from Drug Trade http://www. mapinc.org/author/Dan+Gardner ).
Drugs-crime and the estimated USD 400 billion illegal revenue it engenders yearly worldwide is not a natural phenomenon.
It has a simple cause: the world-wide policy of prohibition.

6. Conclusion
The health-risks of drugs are modest compared to alcohol and tobacco. This modesty is not due to prohibition: the Dutch experiment with regulated sale of cannabis and other measures shows regulation to be at least as effective.
As doubtful as are the benefits of the drugs-prohibition, just as clear has now become the danger it creates as a gold-mine for crime.
Replacing the prohibition of drugs by a system of government-regulation will be an indispensable and highly effective measure to squeeze the flow of oxygen to the many-headed monster of crime and terrorism.

Next steps

Debates on cannabis are taking place in most European countries as well as in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand among others. In the U.S. more and more politicians, organisations and media, of all political colours, distance themselves from the administration's 'war on drugs~ and its catastrophic consequences both in their country and in the world at large.

In Switzerland, a proposal of law to regulate the cultivation and sale of cannabis has been introduced by the government this year.
In The Netherlands, a majority in Parliament, urged-on by a concerted action of major cities, has asked the government to regulate the cultivation of the cannabis to be sold in the coffeeshops. As a consequence, the Dutch Government, together with the governments of Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, will hold a pan-European conference for cities about their problems with the cannabis-issue. The conference will take place coming 6/7/8 December.

Regulation of cannabis seems a logical first step. Its health-risks are small, and the experiment with regulated sale has proven the fears of greater (mis-)use to be unfounded. Other drugs carry other health-hazards. Leaving the production and sale of these other drugs to organised crime clearly is the worst option to deal with these hazards.
Time has come to shed the fear of change, and replace the failed instrument of prohibition by a system of government-regulation.

Drugs in the Netherlands

Sources:
1/2/3: Dutch Governmental Paper on Alcohol; 2001-2003.
2: (number of alcoholics): Trimbosinstitute, Mensink & Spruit, 1998.
4: Personal information from high officials of Justice Department and Police.

The Netherlands Drug Policy Foundation ("Stichting Drugsbeleid" - SDB) was founded in 1996. It strives for a drug-policy with less health-risks and less crime.
In 1996 the 5DB published a report, titled "Drug Control through Legalisation". It broke through the existing taboo on legalising drugs in the public debate, putting forward a concrete plan.
In 1998 we published a plan to regulate the growing of cannabis to be sold in the "coffeeshops", and organised a lobby of city-majors urging the government to allow such regulatory measures. It resulted in a majority-motion in Parliament, and the promise by the government to stimulate an international debate on cannabis.

Board:
R. Dufour - president, director private company
Marijke A.S. van Sprang-Kamstra - secretary, member city-council Lelystad for Democrats 66
R.T. Steinbuch - treasurer
R. van Diessen - alderman Tilburg for Liberal Party VVD
J.W.E. Gutteling - alderman Apeldoorn for Socialist Party PvdA
J. van Leijenhorst - former alderman, member city-council Utrecht for
Green-Left Party Groen Links
F. Polak- psychiatrist Amsterdam
J. Schijf- former alderman Heerhugowaard for Liberal Party VVD
J.G. van der Tas- former ambassador in Germany

Advisory Board:
Hedy d'Ancona - former Minister of Public Health, former member of
the European Parliament
Th.M.G. van Berkestijn - former Secretary General of the Royal Dutch
Medical Association
A. van Dantzig - psychiatrist
H. Drion - former vice-president High Court of Justice
J.F. Glastra van Loon - former Under-Minister of Justice
R. van der Hoeven - Public Prosecutor
M. Lap - advisor drug-policy
J.C.M. Leijten - former Public Prosecutor at the High Court of Justice
T. Reitsma - Superintendent of Police