“Although smoking cannabis and coffee shops selling the drug are tolerated, it is illegal to grow commercially. This means that cafes offer a legally tolerated channel for criminal activity, and a training ground for young criminals.” The key sentences. Once you decriminalise the retail and consumption end of the recreational drugs market, you are acquiescing in the whole end-to-end operation.
All except the growth and import, which is where the criminals are ready to make money and defend their turf. Why not make the growth and import legal, subject to inspections and controls like other somewhat dangerous substances. Legitimate businesses will crowd out the criminals.
Surely then the solution is to legalise cannabis instead of having the ridiculous halfway house where retail and consumption is permitted but production is not. Or to put it another way: someone is going to be supplying weed to the Dutch market. Is it better for that someone to be organised crime, or legitimate businesses? I’d say obviously the latter.
It is wrong to assume that a legal trade will naturally subvert an illegal one. For example take a look at the size of the illegal cigarette market. Also, well established illegal markets have huge advantages over legal ones in terms of costs and adapatability, and of course they have their own ways of discouraging or even eliminating the competition.
Then you tax it and start telling people what is a safe amount/type..safe number of hours to smoke/take it and so on… then the crims produce harder hits and on it goes?
Matt Hindman
2 years ago
So much for that “rampant narcotics and gang shootings are just a Western Hemisphere thing.” I was told these things don’t happen in Europe over and over again by Europeans who always felt the need to comment on North and South American affairs. I am a little impressed at the scale of it. I mean it is understandable in America. We have a basically open border, the country below us is controlled by drug cartels, and product is easily manufactured and moved to the border. I know smuggling is easier than most of the general public thinks but the logistics involved in moving massive amounts of narcotics to a place like the Netherlands is rather impressive. Especially when you factor in all the myriad requirements to get it there in the first place plus the difficulty of smuggling the profits back out.
In Sweden hand grenades are the weapon of choice for drug gangs and other criminals. These problems are everywhere.
Dustshoe Richinrut
2 years ago
Is the situation in which many of the young men attracted to the illegal drugs trade find themselves one of poverty and exclusion? How much poverty and unemployment are there in The Netherlands? Ought the Dutch be ashamed of themselves? What more should Dutch society have done to make everyone happy and, if not joyful, hopeful?
A fascinating article and exactly the sort of novel topic I come to enjoy from Unherd.
Ernesto Garza
2 years ago
The US is well on the way. Criminally open borders (Biden) have allowed a flood of the unvetted; MS 13, a notoriously violent drug gang from Central America, is no doubt smelling the US cash.
A small consolation in the US: Our second amendment. Guns are not scarce, and a trained, response to threat might make gangs plan their “hit” a little more carefully.
The carrot of bribe money and the stick of wiping out your family is unresistable. The gangs seem destined to prevail. Witness Mexico.
So has this always been around? I’m curious about when it started or if some event precipitated this?
Wilma K
2 years ago
Talking. They talk and talk endlessly … any decision needs consensus. It’s called the “polder model”. Very slow decision-making, if any, as everyone needs to be heard. And I’m saying this as a Dutch-born.
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Beating us at sea for starters, then conquering us in 1688, and finally being rather good artists.
As a former graduate of the Guards Depot* you should know this? Or were you never Commissioned may I ask?
“Although smoking cannabis and coffee shops selling the drug are tolerated, it is illegal to grow commercially. This means that cafes offer a legally tolerated channel for criminal activity, and a training ground for young criminals.” The key sentences. Once you decriminalise the retail and consumption end of the recreational drugs market, you are acquiescing in the whole end-to-end operation.
All except the growth and import, which is where the criminals are ready to make money and defend their turf. Why not make the growth and import legal, subject to inspections and controls like other somewhat dangerous substances. Legitimate businesses will crowd out the criminals.
Surely then the solution is to legalise cannabis instead of having the ridiculous halfway house where retail and consumption is permitted but production is not. Or to put it another way: someone is going to be supplying weed to the Dutch market. Is it better for that someone to be organised crime, or legitimate businesses? I’d say obviously the latter.
It is wrong to assume that a legal trade will naturally subvert an illegal one. For example take a look at the size of the illegal cigarette market. Also, well established illegal markets have huge advantages over legal ones in terms of costs and adapatability, and of course they have their own ways of discouraging or even eliminating the competition.
Then you tax it and start telling people what is a safe amount/type..safe number of hours to smoke/take it and so on… then the crims produce harder hits and on it goes?
So much for that “rampant narcotics and gang shootings are just a Western Hemisphere thing.” I was told these things don’t happen in Europe over and over again by Europeans who always felt the need to comment on North and South American affairs. I am a little impressed at the scale of it. I mean it is understandable in America. We have a basically open border, the country below us is controlled by drug cartels, and product is easily manufactured and moved to the border. I know smuggling is easier than most of the general public thinks but the logistics involved in moving massive amounts of narcotics to a place like the Netherlands is rather impressive. Especially when you factor in all the myriad requirements to get it there in the first place plus the difficulty of smuggling the profits back out.
In Sweden hand grenades are the weapon of choice for drug gangs and other criminals. These problems are everywhere.
Is the situation in which many of the young men attracted to the illegal drugs trade find themselves one of poverty and exclusion? How much poverty and unemployment are there in The Netherlands? Ought the Dutch be ashamed of themselves? What more should Dutch society have done to make everyone happy and, if not joyful, hopeful?
None. See above.
Probably Boris Johnson and the Tories to blame…?
A fascinating article and exactly the sort of novel topic I come to enjoy from Unherd.
The US is well on the way. Criminally open borders (Biden) have allowed a flood of the unvetted; MS 13, a notoriously violent drug gang from Central America, is no doubt smelling the US cash.
A small consolation in the US: Our second amendment. Guns are not scarce, and a trained, response to threat might make gangs plan their “hit” a little more carefully.
The carrot of bribe money and the stick of wiping out your family is unresistable. The gangs seem destined to prevail. Witness Mexico.
They even have a name for it “plata o plomo,” silver or lead.
Why not just solve the problem by legalising the drugs? Then, it is just another product.
Like cigarettes you mean…
So has this always been around? I’m curious about when it started or if some event precipitated this?
Talking. They talk and talk endlessly … any decision needs consensus. It’s called the “polder model”. Very slow decision-making, if any, as everyone needs to be heard. And I’m saying this as a Dutch-born.
Beating us at sea for starters, then conquering us in 1688, and finally being rather good artists.
As a former graduate of the Guards Depot* you should know this? Or were you never Commissioned may I ask?
(* mention in a previous post a few days ago.)
The past is a different country; they do things differently there.
Don’t you think you should have attributed that to the splendid LP Hartley, late of Balliol and Harrow?
very informative articles or reviews at this time.
very informative articles or reviews at this time.
çok bilgilendirici bir yazı olmuş ellerinize sağlık teşekkür ederim
çok bilgilendirici bir yazı olmuş ellerinize sağlık teşekkür ederim
I like the efforts you have put in this, regards for all the great content.
I like the efforts you have put in this, regards for all the great content.
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Cool and fantastic job.
I just like the helpful information you provide in your articles
I just like the helpful information you provide in your articles
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I like the efforts you have put in this, regards for all the great content.
I like the efforts you have put in this, regards for all the great content.