We\u2019re proud of our health-led drugs policy, but the rise of the global illegal drugs trade means we need international solutions<\/p>\n
In the Netherlands, we used to look on the international \u201cwar on drugs\u201d with a certain amount of disdain. Its solutions were prohibition, criminalisation, stiff penalties and sentences; our national drug policy, on the other hand, focused for decades on reducing the health risks for users \u2013 and was relatively successful. We are lenient on soft drugs such as cannabis, allowing for personal use under specific conditions. Hard drugs are technically illegal, but possession of small amounts (like half a gram of hard drugs or one ecstasy pill) is often not prosecuted. Police cracked down on the largest drug traffickers, who mainly operated locally. There was drug crime and even killings, but these remained traceable and largely manageable. Drug trafficking hardly affected our economy or daily life.<\/p>\n
That is no longer the case. Spurred on by globalisation and the international criminalisation of drugs, the illegal drugs trade has become more lucrative, professional and ruthlessly violent. The effects have been disastrous. In the past decade, the port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, has become a global transit hub for cocaine<\/a>. The Dutch authorities have increased their efforts to combat drug trafficking, but they have not turned the tide. Recent figures show a record increase in the amount of cocaine being seized, from just over 22,000kg in the first half of 2022 to 29,702kg<\/a> in the first half of 2023. While this may seem encouraging at first glance, it actually illustrates the immense scale of what is happening. Our current approach in the fight against drugs is like mopping with the tap running.<\/p>\n Femke Halsema is the mayor of Amsterdam. An international conference<\/a> on further regulation of the drug market will be held in Amsterdam on 26 January 2024<\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re proud of our health-led drugs policy, but the rise of the global illegal drugs trade means we need international solutions In the Netherlands, we used to look on the international \u201cwar on drugs\u201d with a certain amount of disdain. Its solutions were prohibition, criminalisation, stiff penalties and sentences; our national drug policy, on the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}