Image FRANK RUITER
Mayor Halsema opens the article by describing how the national policy of tolerance has worked well for years in, among others, Amsterdam. The policy mainly focused on health risks for users; in daily life no one was bothered by the nuisance of drugs and crime.
Halsema has seen a change in recent years. «Spurred by globalization and the international criminalization of drugs, illicit drug trafficking has become more profitable, professional and violent. The consequences are disastrous,” he writes. The fight against drug use and trafficking has been a source of discussion and disagreement for decades, at home and abroad.
On January 26, Halsema, who, unlike the Ministry of Justice and Security, supports a liberal approach, called an international conference to review Dutch drug policy. A week and a half later, a national conference will take place in Driebergen.
Amsterdam as a centre
Halsema highlights in the Guardian the consequences for Rotterdam, which has become an international transit point for cocaine, and for Amsterdam, as a global center of financial transactions in drug trafficking. The developments cannot be considered in isolation from the increase in violence. The low point is the broad daylight murder of lawyer Derk Wiersum and crime journalist Peter R. de Vries. “Without a radical change of course, the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state.”
What Halsema means: The international war on drugs is counterproductive, especially in the Netherlands. For example, he cites the international pressure that contributed to the classification of MDMA as a hard drug. “This change has inadvertently contributed to the profitability of illegal MDMA production and created a profitable business model for criminal organizations.”
Halsema: ‘What the Dutch problems make clear is the need for a global change in the current approach. This is not about repealing our user-centered policies, but rather about supporting international recognition that the war on drugs is counterproductive.”
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2024-01-05 12:11:09
#intervention #Netherlands #risks #narcostate