Dutch Admission: Marijuana Isn’t So Soft Kids!

Weekend Libertarian ^ | June 29, 2011 | B.P. Terpstra

[AustralianConservative]

Okay. So it’s too late for some fried brains – but better late than never. From Reuters:

Now, a Dutch commission has found that hashish and marijuana on sale in the Netherlands contain around 18 percent of THC, the main psychoactive substance, and advised the health minister that anything above 15 percent put drugs on a par with heroin or cocaine.

“I've been very worried for years about the THC concentration, especially if it is so high. We will take a serious look at it," Health Minister Edith Schippers told public broadcaster NOS.

“The addictive consequences are much stronger and severe. Clearly this is a worrying development.”

When asked if tolerant soft drugs policies would end if some cannabis was labeled as a hard drug, she said: “The THC concentration fluctuates widely so the 15 percent level is not common. You'd have to look at how to change this development.”

Utopianism disappoints. Decades earlier, the Dutch experiment was sold uncritically as progressive, and the way of the future. In recent years, however, so-called soft drugs have been restricted on health and crime grounds, because attacks on family businesses and medical costs are costly, as conservatives predicted.

Some background. Here’s Larry Collins in Foreign Affairs (May/June 1999):

As the coffee shops boomed between 1984 and 1996, marijuana use among Dutch youths aged 18 to 25 leapt by well over 200 percent. In 1997, there was a 25 percent increase in the number of registered cannabis addicts receiving treatment for their habit, as compared to a mere 3 percent rise in cases of alcohol abuse. In 1995, public Ministry of Justice studies estimated that 700,000 to 750,000 of Holland’s 15 million people – about 5 percent of the population – were regular cannabis users.

[Minn]

Now, a Dutch commission has found that hashish and marijuana on sale in the Netherlands contain around 18 percent of THC, the main psychoactive substance, and advised the health minister that anything above 15 percent put drugs on a par with heroin or cocaine.

That is such nonsense. The idea that the potency of dope changes its essential nature to something like cocaine could only be believed by somebody that has never used either.

Yep, in the old days pot didn't tend to be as strong as now. So back then, kids took 6 hits to get to the exact same place they get now on 2. And not a single one of them ever suffered a heart attack or respiratory failure in the process, then or now.

Silly refer madness never goes completely away. Some people just seem unable to cope with varying dangers associated with varying substances.

The ability for cocaine, heroine, and other hard drugs to severely damage or end a life in a short time is undeniable. You just can't say that about pot without looking foolish trying. So you are reduced to:

"It will make you nuts, seiously. And did you heart that somebody said that crime went up somewhere once in Holland? Really, it did. Can't tie any particular crime to any particular pothead, but stats are stats. And worst of all, of you keep toking like that for 30 years you will get sick and die in another 30 years maybe, maybe not. Oh and did I mention you might be lazy, live in your mom's basement, and have a loser job? That sure beats slab at the morgue that other drugs send you to. But still, it's just as bad because my anti-drug feelings insist that drugs are drugs, so it must be."

[Ken H]

Now for some crime facts:

"Approximately 170 murders were committed in the Netherlands in 2010, a slight decrease from 2009."

http://www.denhaag.nl/de/to/Population-of-The-Hague-rising.htm

That works out to a murder rate of just over 1 per 100,000 population. Compare that to the US murder rate of 5 per 100,000

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

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Let's look at Amsterdam:

"In Amsterdam the number of murders decreased from 32 in 2009 to 16 in 2010..."

http://www.denhaag.nl/de/to/Population-of-The-Hague-rising.htm

With a population of about 730,000, that works out to a murder rate of about 2.2/100,000. For comparison, San Jose has consistently been ranked among the safest cities over 500,000 in the US. According to city-data.com, its murder rate for 2009 was 2.6/100,000.

__________________________________________

Two questions:

1. Would you rather a loved one walked through Amsterdam, or through a randomly chosen American city over 500,000?

2. You never answered my question on how you justify support for federal laws based on the New Deal Commerce Clause, after claiming to have studied the Constitution. Would you do so now?

[Ken H]

And this:

Record low murder rate once again

2 January 2008

AMSTERDAM - 147 murders were committed in the Netherlands last year, one fewer than in 2006 and therefore a record low, according to the annual report from Elsevier.

http://mlvb.net/www.expatica.com/nl/news/local_news/Record-low-murder-rate-once-again_1276.html

[Ken H]

The preceding URL was the mobilized version. The regular version is:

http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/local_news/Record-low-murder-rate-once-again_1276.html