Netherlands

Essay, Nov/Dec 2005

Since French and Dutch voters rejected the European constitution last spring, the EU has been in crisis. The treaty debacle did not cause the EU's current troubles; the EU's long-standing problems caused voters' dissatisfaction. But the way out of the impasse should involve pragmatic steps to improve EU economics, not legal or institutional reforms.

Response, Nov/Dec 1999

Dazed and Confused: Smoke and Mirrors over Dutch Drug Policy

Joris Vos, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., et al.

Larry Collins' critique of Holland's liberal drug policies was exaggerated, anecdotal, and unwilling to acknowledge some real successes. Collins responds.

Essay, May/Jun 1999

Holland's Half-Baked Drug Experiment

Larry Collins

The Netherlands' vaunted drug policies -- legalizing the public sale of cannabis products in the now-famous coffee shops and adopting a generally lenient attitude toward drug use -- have turned the country into the narcotics capital of western Europe. Dutch cops admit that Holland is to synthetic drugs what Colombia is to cocaine. Not only is Holland's increasingly potent marijuana not staying in the legal coffee shops, but its illegal export brings in far more money than that traditional Dutch export, tulips. Meanwhile, drug addiction has tripled. There are no easy answers to drugs, but naive Dutch legislators have made a hash of drug policy.