This blog post is inaccurate.
To start with, the big picture of the Netherlands is that while soft drugs and prostitution are legal (and I’ll only mention in passing that it is also a religious missionary capital of the world), the problem does not lay in the drugs or prostitutes themselves, but in those “drug and prostitution tourists” who are “ugly”.
The typical Dutch youth actually uses *less* drugs than the young people in parts of Europe where drugs are illegal. Not just less in frequency, but less in quantity, as well.
On a related note, the decline in marriage among the young tracks pretty close to that in the rest of Europe, whether or not prostitution is legal.
The recent political shift in the Netherlands to the right, while driven by a rejection of the left and immigration, has focused on clamping down on the “ugly” tourists, by restricting the drug trade and prostitution. That this is associated with morality is dubious, because it is seemingly done to *avoid* dealing with the issues of too much government and too many illegal aliens.
Which sounds all together familiar here in the US, where for years, the Republicans have “thrown bones” to conservatives on social issues to avoid dealing with major problems.
So the bottom line is that drugs and prostitution are not the real problem in the Netherlands. Never have been.
Interesting perspective. Drugs and prostitution are good for the Dutch - but have you checked out their tax bills? Ever wondered why so many people are fleeing the nation? I know Dutch people myself. The nation is messed up but drugs or an adults-only libertarian mindset will blind the faithful to the obvious.
Even the New York Times admits that their crime waves are shocking. By the way, I also read there is a huge political backlash in the Netherlands against soft-on-drug laws, meaning that living with the mess is different than glamorizing the mess from across the pond.