Comment 31741

By JonC (registered) | Posted June 12, 2009 at 19:11:13

I caught that, but I don't see how that fits with "You also run the risk of what I believe is happening in the Netherlands where you create a cyclical problem as more of society now tries the drug and more of society needs to be rehabilitated from the drug". I don't think there is anything that would suggest that the increase (which has been going on for three decades now) of exposure to drugs in causing the increase of people in rehab.

As for cultural differences, that sounds good on paper but I don't think it holds any water and further don't see how it applies to either mandatory minimum sentencing or explaining why our laws should be different.

But even if don't think that comparison between North American countries and European countries is valid, that's fine, compare European countries amongst themselves. Denmark has nearly identical usage rates (5.2% & 5.4%) and treatment rates (331 & 351 per million), despite differing legislation. Italy and Spain both show usage rates of 11.2% (which is near the rate in America), and the treatment for addiction is less (274 & 143 per million) than that of The Netherlands per populace (351 per million), but Switzerland has a 9.6% usage rate and has a treatment rate higher than The Netherlands (384 per million).

So to recap, decades of legislative change show no particular difference between The Netherlands and Denmark and having a higher usage rate can lead to higher or lower addiction treatment rates.

If the Netherlands largest problem is being a drug tourist and red light traffic district, wouldn't, that doesn't really sounds like a problem. In fact it sounds like an opportunity other European countries should be taking advantage of, except for the huge level of misinformation that people seem to be willing to accept at face value.

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