# Posted 8:55 AM by Anonymous  

AN ARTICLE IN THE American Prospect (sorry it's not available online), by Robert Maccoun and Peter Reuter, arguing that the problems with the war on drugs, severe as they may be, do not warrant widespread legalization and commercialization of the industry, notes:

"The Dutch decision to allow the sale of small amounts of marijuana and hashish in specially regulated coffee shops provides the best available evidence about the advantages and limitations of such an approach. Dutch law unequivocally prohibits possession of any form of cannabis, the plant from which both marijuana and hashish are derived; international treaties signed by the country require that. Yet in 1976, the Dutch adopted a formal written policy of nonenforcement for violations involving possession or sale of up to 30 grams. Since 1995 that's been changed to five grams, but either is a sizeable quantity given that few Dutch users, according to research done at the University of Amsterdam, consume more than 10 grams a month. The Dutch implemented this system of quasi-legal commercial availability in order to prevent excessive punishment of casual users, and to weaken the link between soft- and hard-drug markets by allowing marijuana users to avoid contact with illegal sellers."

Having recently returned from Amsterdam, I would like to attest to the strange coffeeshop culture that has emerged. While it is only legal to smoke marijuana or hashish in a government registered coffeeshop (and in many cases from someone sporting a t-shirt with the phrase: "legal drug dealer") or in the privacy of your own home, in fact the law is rarely enforced. In Centraal station, for example, I saw more than one blunt alit. The point here is that the Dutch government is not really interested in regulating pot. In fact, the only reason the legal limit was diminished to 5 grams was to avoid international criticism, largely--or at least most loudly--coming from Jacques Chirac.

And indeed, it's not just marijuana and hash that are legal in the Netherlands. You can buy mushrooms and a variety of other "herbal" drugs at what is called a smartshop.

Interestingly, one of Maccoun and Reuter's concerns in the legalization of certain drugs is the potential for alcohol and tobacco industry-like advertising. In the Netherlands, advertising for any kind of drug is quite regulated. In fact, when you enter a coffeeshop, you often have to specifically ask to see a menu-any menu posted never mentions the drug by name. Similarly, smartshops can advertise that they have the best "smart products" but you have to be in the know to understand what that is supposed to mean. Of course, everyone is, so it's a little unclear what the difference between full-out advertising would be. Sure it's more unseemly to have your city plastered with ads for the best hash around, but still, that seems a little superficial.

Drugs, in the Netherlands, hold a funny place. They're technically not quite legal, but you'll never be stopped from doing them. However, to smoke pot, you can't sit in nice cocktail bar. You are restricted to the Pink Floyd-sketchiness of the government-approved coffeeshop. And you feel--sort of--like you're getting away with something. Mostly, I think all this has to do with the pressures from the international community to more heavily regulate the drug trade, but either way it leaves drugs in a funny purgatory of sort of legal, sort of OK behavior. Sure, it seems to work out, but I'm not convinced that the best public policy is one where the government sort of turns a blind eye.

Maccoun and Reuter's contention that drug decriminalization with regulation might be OK but that total legalization (such as we have for, I don't know, asparagus) wouldn't. I'm willing to concede that point. However, I'm having a little trouble finding the place where anyone said that'd be a good idea. (0) opinions -- Add your opinion