Drug Policy in Amsterdam

It is commonly known that you are allowed to enter coffee shops in Amsterdam and can purchase drugs legally. But that’s not all: you’ll even be offered an overview of the drugs you’d like to have and perhaps you’ll even be recommended the ‘daily menu’. It’s all possible, and four joints will cost you the same as a pack of cigarettes. No one will handcuff you, because it’s all legal. So what are these laws? Are Dutch people unaware of the dangers of drug abuse?

The Dutch Opium laws have been amended over time, as have the laws of many other countries. However, compared to the rest of the world, Holland takes a different approach to drugs.

Dutch narcotics laws

The Dutch drug policy is unique. It is based on the principle that every person has the right to decide over his or her own health. Dutch people believe this is a fundamental right. Holland is also the only country in the world that allows voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill. Another principle this policy is based on is the idea that obscuring social problems will not make them go away: in fact, they will only get worse because the problem then disappears underground and becomes harder to control and influence. By applying the laws this way, Dutch people are trying to get drug use out in the open so that it becomes a personal matter for people rather than something that must be fought by the police. Producing, trading and storing drugs is still illegal, as it is in many other countries.

Many legal systems in other countries do not punish people for using drugs, but rather, for possessing it. Offenders are sentenced to jail for possession of drugs, but not for using. In Holland this is considered strictly a formality. Statistics show that about half of Americans openly admit to having done marihuana (although some say they didn’t inhale). The so-called “war on drugs” that president Richard Nixon started in the 1970s resulted in spending enormous amounts of government budget and required expensive enforcement organizations. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were arrested, often for minor offences. As a result, drugs became a forbidden fruit and using drugs became more attractive. On the other hand, the gateway theory that suggests that using cannabis may lead to the use of more dangerous drugs. This theory has yet to be proven.

Holland considers drug use to be an individual choice and it is equated with the use of alcohol and tobacco. Some people even believe that it is similar to obesity, alcoholism and smoking tobacco. They often refer to the Prohibition in the United States that lasted from 1919 to 1933. This Noble Experiment caused more negative effects, like an increase in criminal activities, than positive ones.

Rules

In Holland, drugs are divided into two categories depending on the effect they have on the human body. These two categories are soft drugs and hard drugs. Hard drugs, like cocaine, LSD, morphine and heroine, are illegal, as they are in most other countries.

Soft drugs, like all types of cannabis (marihuana, hashish, hash oil) and hallucinogenic mushrooms (magic mushrooms or ‘paddo’s’) are legal if they are for ‘personal use’. Smoking cannabis is allowed in public, as is selling it, although this is formally still illegal under the Opium law (law from 1919, cannabis was added in 1950). Selling and trading soft drugs is allowed throughout the country, but it must take place in a limited and controlled manner (for example in coffee shops, in small quantities, no more than 5 grams, traders are only allowed small inventories, sold only to adults, no minors allowed in coffee shops, no advertising allowed and the municipality must not have ordered the coffee shop to close down).

The situation with regard to hallucinogenic mushrooms recently changed. Selling them was made illegal on November 1st, 2008. Some 200 species of mushrooms are now prohibited and fall under the Dutch Opium law. They are now considered as dangerous as cocaine and heroine. Magic mushrooms were previously considered different from other drugs and were sold at so-called smart shops. Some natural medicine, like Ginkgo Biloba, Guarana Cola, herbs and some additives and vitamins were also very popular. The decision to stop selling them was taken following hundreds of reported medical cases related to the consumption of magic mushrooms in Amsterdam. These were often foreign tourists. Unfortunately three of the cases were extremely severe and included the tragic death of a 17-year old French girl. Hundreds of people took to the streets to protest the banning of magic mushrooms before the law came into effect. The municipality of Amsterdam feared that the sale of magic mushrooms would take place underground and suggested a three-day waiting period with each sell as a compromise. This proposal was rejected. Magic mushrooms are now illegal in Holland, as are hard drugs. Extremely limited quantities are still permitted, but growing them on a large scale is illegal.

Holland has strict law that limit carrying drugs to small quantities. There are also rules pertaining to sale and use. Growing, processing and trading marihuana on a large scale is still illegal, as it is in every other country in the world. The corresponding punishments, however, are considerably lower than abroad.

Some Dutch municipalities have come up with their own, additional regulation with respect to specific matters of enforcement, sentencing and use of soft drugs. From a practical point of view, minor offences like exceeding the maximum allowed quantity by a small amount are usually not convicted. The government considers sentencing and jail time expensive and believes that it has a number of socially undesirable effects that don’t weigh up against the possible benefits of a conviction.

Dutch people have not succeeded in solving the problem of a controlled supply of soft drugs. Although trading and growing marihuana on a large scale is illegal, the question remains how coffee shops should be supplied with their legally permitted quantities. A government-controlled weed-plantation in greenhouses is a much-heard solution, but there is no doubt that much of the cannabis sold in coffee shops is imported from illegal (foreign) sources.

Approach in two-fold

Dutch people do not consider their tolerant policy with respect to limited use of soft drugs to be a magic pill. The goal is to prevent drug abuse with the help of educational measures and proper supervision of places where drugs are often used. Possible health hazards are combated by offering free tests for ecstasy pills and by a program where free needles and methadone (surrogate for heroine) are issued to heroin addicts. Today, over 60 Dutch cities operate these types of programs to help addicts. At the same time, the Dutch government is trying to ban lethal illegal drugs in hopes of gaining control over the issue of drug abuse. Statistical data confirm that only 16% of Dutch youth with an average age of 28 have ever tried marihuana. Soft drugs, which are available everywhere, seem to be declining in popularity.