Loyal Opposition to the War on Drugs: Drugs and the Criminal Law in Western Democracies (From Criminal Law in Action: An Overview of Current Issues in Western Societies, P 215-228, 1988, Jan van Dijk, Charles Haffmans, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-126687)

• NCJ Number: 126701
• Author(s): A S Trebach
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Kluwer Law International
• Publication Type: Survey (Cross-Cultural)
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands

Annotation

The United States has been in the forefront of the international movement to control drugs, but its approach may not be as effective as that of the Dutch and the British.

Abstract

Innovative experiments have been attempted in the Netherlands to curtail drug use. Through a combination of law reform and organized prosecutorial restraint, possession and small sales of marijuana have been virtually legalized. This approach has not produced an epidemic of marijuana abuse; rather, marijuana is simply another product that people choose or ignore. Most have chosen to ignore marijuana, with under 2 percent of Dutch youth regularly using the drug. The comparable figure for the United States is about 5 percent. The Netherlands has also taken the pioneering step of making explicit differences in law and practice between soft drugs such as marijuana and hard drugs. The United States should examine the experience of the Netherlands and also consider the British approach to the treatment of addicts and to the use of heroin to treat the organically ill. While the U.S. focus is on hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, a major target of the drug war is still marijuana, and this perhaps should change. The forces of harsh drug control measures and excessive reliance on criminal law are dominant in the United States, but moderate opposition is slowly building. International conventions and efforts to control drugs are reviewed. Source notes