“Is It Us Who Are Wrong? No, It’s The Rest Of The World!”

The Mayor of Drugstown:

In the Netherlands, we used to look on the international “war on drugs” 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 – 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.

And is it still a befuddled paradise for stoners and normal folk alike? No, Reader, it is not...

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. The Dutch authorities have increased their efforts to combat drug trafficking, but they have not turned the tide.

Our current approach in the fight against drugs is like mopping with the tap running.

So will you be abandonging your approach? 

The challenges we now face in the Netherlands are not an indictment of our liberal drug policy.

Oh! There's a surprise, Reader... 

What the Netherlands’ problems reveal is the need for a global shift in the current approach. It’s not a matter of retracting our user-centred policy, but rather advocating for international recognition that the war on drugs is counterproductive.

To spare your blushes, the whole world must turn to your approach? I would ask what you've been smoking, but...