Dazed and Confused: Smoke and Mirrors over Dutch Drug Policy

SOBER UP

By Joris Vos

Informed debate and analysis require reliable data and information, so I was disappointed to read Larry Collins' biased, unbalanced, and highly anecdotal article on Dutch drug policy ("Holland's Half-Baked Drug Experiment," May/June 1999). Not only does Collins not compare different types of drug policies and their outcomes, he makes many factual errors. To name a few:

The increase in cannabis use that Collins cites is also present in other European countries, so factors other than Dutch drug policy are obviously relevant. Cannabis use in the United States, for example, is much higher than in the Netherlands.

Collins' assertion that the Netherlands has twice as many heroin addicts as the United Kingdom is wrong. They have comparable rates of heroin use.

Also incorrect is Collins' statement that the percentage of THC (the substance that gives a pot-smoker a high) in the Dutch-grown marijuana known as Nederwiet is as high as 35 percent. The actual figure is 8 percent -- only around 1 percent higher than that of foreign marijuana.

Collins reports an increase in cannabis use among youth in major Dutch cities, from which he infers that the "skyrocketing" rise (for which no figures are provided) in violent crime in those cities is due to increased cannabis use. But it has been scientifically established that cannabis does not evoke aggression, making Collins' linking of both (possibly untrue) observations highly questionable.

The description of slums in Rotterdam and Amsterdam should have included a comparison with such areas in other countries. Although some problems do exist in these places, they pale in comparison to those in the major cities of the Western world.

The drug policy of the Netherlands has evolved over the years with the consent of the Dutch people, who are, for the most part, satisfied with the results. Although our approach may differ from other countries', our goals are the same: reducing drug use and the harm it causes both the user and society. Any sober analysis of Dutch drug policy will reveal both some impressive results and some areas that require more aggressive action. Collins' article was not intended to further serious, responsible debate; it was a simplistic polemic about a problem that surely deserves more informed and factual treatment.

Joris Vos is Ambassador of the Netherlands to the United States.

BENIGN VENEER

By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.

Larry Collins takes a clear-eyed look at the dangerous downside of Holland's drug laws, which have increased crime and addiction within the Netherlands -- and beyond. His article strips away the benign veneer that some attribute to marijuana. Collins should be congratulated for reporting on the tragic ramifications of Holland's loose marijuana laws, which include an increase in the number of Dutch youngsters abusing and addicted to drugs.

Joseph A. Califano, Jr., is Chair and President of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

HUMAN NATURE

By Craig Reinarman and Peter Cohen

Larry Collins asserts that Dutch policies have caused an "explosion" of heroin addiction and juvenile crime and claims that Holland has virtually become a drug-dealing state causing havoc in neighboring countries. But most of Collins' arguments are exaggerated, misleading, or false. Consider the following examples.

Since 1976, the Dutch parliament has supported decriminalization and harm reduction. But Collins does not quote a single Dutch official saying anything positive about Dutch drug policy.

Collins claims that Dutch-grown marijuana is "enormously potent," with a content of THC "as high as 35 percent." He cites studies by the Dutch Trimbos Institute when they appear to support his case -- but not their Drug Monitoring Program's study showing that the average THC content of Dutch pot is 10 percent. Collins also neglects to mention surveys showing that most Dutch users actually prefer the milder strains of marijuana and that those who do smoke the stronger stuff use less of it.

Nor is there much reason to think that the Dutch drug approach has made much more of the population try marijuana. Recent surveys in Amsterdam, where marijuana has long been widely available, found that about 30 percent of the population had tried it; surveys in the United States, where nearly 700,000 arrests were made last year to reduce pot's availability, found that about 35 percent of people in comparably large cities had tried it.

Collins rejects official estimates of drug use in favor of unnamed "critics" who contend that there are 35,000 addicts in the Netherlands. But Collins never expresses this estimate as a rate and compares it to that of other nations. With a population of about 15 million, 35,000 addicts is 1 in 428 Dutch citizens. The U.S. government estimates that there are 750,000 heroin addicts in its population of 265 million, or 1 in 353 Americans. Moreover, a 1998 report by the European Union (EU) Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that the Dutch rate of "problem drug use" was lower than that of most other European countries.

Collins quotes an unnamed French police officer who alleges that an "explosion" of "international trafficking groups" in the Netherlands was caused by "the light sentences" and "liberal attitude" of Dutch judges. But comparable nations with harsh laws and conservative judges giving heavy sentences also have their share of such trafficking groups.

Collins attributes a "skyrocketing growth in juvenile crime" and "acts of violence" to Dutch drug policy, arguing that marijuana use is most prevalent in big cities -- as is violent crime. But correlation is not causation. There is more of every "sin" in every big city, and crime has also increased in countries with harsh drug laws.