“Dutch young people who use soft drugs are perfectly aware of the dangers of using hard drugs such as heroin and have no great desire to experiment with them”
The second argument given is that the Dutch approach of tolerating cannabis has been a failure. This is in no way true as the Dutch report states that:
“The number of hard drug addicts per 100,000 in population in the Netherlands is low in comparison with the European average of 2.7 and is considerably lower than in France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.”
Far from being a failure the report concludes that the pioneering Dutch policy has been a complete success. It also states they will continue on the same course that it embarked on in the 1970s with little adjustment.
It is not just users who want the drug decriminalised. Advantages for the government are obvious. The ever-increasing prison population and over stretched police forces are just two. The fact that 83% of all drug offences in the UK are cannabis related gives you some understanding of the problem. A study in Sussex that sent out questionnaires to police officers tells us that 1 in 5 police officers already conduct a liberal policing policy. Officers ignore the drug completely or issue a street caution. Senior police officers also want it decriminalised. This would release resources to tackle hard drug users. The latest in a long line of public figures to declare themselves in favour of legalisation is Lord McCluskey. The senior Scottish judge called for a new Royal Commission to look into the matter including the sentencing of drug users. His argument was focused on the ludicrous fact that cannabis trafficking can carry a sentence of up to 15 years and yet a rapist could expect to be out in 5 years. The Labour MP Paul Flynn backed up the judge’s view and said that cannabis related users fill up to four and a half prisons. Another view came from Dr George Venters, the chair of the BMA Scottish committee. He stated that the classification of cannabis along side Class A drugs as “just as illegal” leads young people into thinking that “shooting up” is no more dangerous than smoking a “joint”. The editorial of the medical journal, The Lancet, declared: “The smoking of cannabis either long or short term is not harmful to health”.
Inhaling smoke of any kind is undeniably bad for you but the current prohibition prevents mature discussion on how to minimise the risks presented by smoking cannabis. These include smoking through a water pipe or by using a vaporiser. These risks are eliminated if the cannabis is eaten.
The Dutch policy has paved the way for the UK and if we were to use their experience we could quite easily avoid any problems. The British Medical Journal declared in December ’95: “Much work needs to be done to envisage a world that includes some legalisation of drugs but it’s clear that a purely prohibitionist policies don’t work and make the problems of drug abuse worse.”
The prohibitionist situation in this country is one of the last major injustices of the twentieth century. The general public has been kept in the dark and misinformed about this drug for far too long. This shows that the Nanny State attitudes have gone too far. What ever happened to freedom of choice? The British government should follow Holland’s lead to respect people’s own views. I am not saying it should be legalised completely; restrictions would have to be brought in as is the same with alcohol and tobacco to prevent abuse. Give the voters the facts and let them make up their own mind.
