Petition December 1995

DRUGS - FROM WAR TO PEACE

Open letter from local councillors and mayors to the cabinet and parliament with regard to the government's policy on drugs and its Drugs Policy Document

The undersigned, being of the opinion:

- that drugs form a relatively small problem in Dutch society; there are 22 times as many alcoholics, there are 12 times as many alcohol-related deaths and 133 as many deaths as a result of smoking;

- that the war on drugs, however, inflicts disproportionate damage to, and costs on society ;

- that the drug prohibition is both a goldmine for and the motor behind organized crime, something which has been shown by scientific publications, as well as by the report released by the parliamentary committee of inquiry Van Traa, and that a large number of crimes committed in our country - some people even claim fifty per cent of total crime - are the result of drug prohibition;

- that this undermines the rule of law and costs society billions of guilders each year;

- that drug prohibition does not prevent drugs from being available to anyone who wants to buy them, but results in organized crime holding the reigns of power where the drugs market is concerned;

- that, with a view to public health and crime prevention issues, the preferable option would be for the government to regulate the drugs market;

- that the time has come to end the 'war on drugs' and to move on to a more constructive 'drugs peace deal';

- that the Drugs Policy Document issued by the government offers a first step in that direction, but that further practical steps can and should be taken;

recommend the government and the parliament to take the following measures:

A. Soft drugs
For many years, a directive issued by the Public Prosecution Service has provided for the sale of soft drugs. The Drugs Policy Document adds a directive on coffee shops stocks.
To complete the more constructive approach to soft drugs, it is vital that production is regulated as well. The Drugs Policy Document indicates that it regards the trend of bona fide coffee shops procuring their goods from non-criminal home growers as a positive development, but does not make any recommendations with regard to this issue.
It is our recommendation that a third directive be issued to regulate the domestic cultivation and production of cannabis. Provisions might include the condition that cannabis may only be supplied to certified coffee shops, and that the concentrations of the active ingredient in cannabis (THC) may not exceed a certain level. In this way, the entire domestic soft drugs production and distribution chain could be kept out of the hands of organized crime.

B. Other drugs
The Drugs Policy Document does not provide an opening for the regulation of this part of the drugs market. The main strategies suggested in this document are the intensification of the war on hard drugs and police actions to sweep the streets clean of drug addicts by chasing them from one part of the city to another. The only concession is an experiment to supply heroin to 50 addicts under medical supervision that may possibly be extended to 200 addicts if the pilot proves successful.

In our opinion, this experiment is unnecessarily limited, with regard to numbers as well as resources. After all, the same health and crime problems apply to cocaine, amphetamines, XTC and other designer drugs. The need for regulation of these drugs will get increasingly urgent as the government regulation of soft drugs is being implemented. Chances are that, as soft drugs are decriminalised, organized crime will focus on pushing other drugs. Since the government feels that the time is not yet ripe for regulation of these drugs on a national level, we recommend local authorities be given more freedom to independently set up experiments whereby drugs are being dispensed under medical supervision. The national government could provide a general framework with rules and regulation that would apply to these supply schemes.
Various local authorities have already drawn up plans to supply different kinds of drugs to different categories of users. Other local authorities intend to do the same. A legal basis for this can be provided by the expediency principle, which means that, although drugs remain illegal, the public prosecution services choose not to apply criminal laws and police adopt a more permissive approach to the possession of drugs. Such regulations would provide room for the supply of drugs other than for strictly medical purposes that is allowed under the current international conventions, and on which the proposed heroin experiment has been based. The tripartite consultations between local authorities, Public Prosecution Services and the police can then determine under which conditions distribution of drugs will not be prosecuted.

Over the years to come, this decentralised approach may, with local communities supporting the initiative, slowly pave the way for an overall system to deal with drugs in a more sensible way.
The time has come to give a clear field to local creativity.