Comment 31755

By JonC (registered) | Posted June 15, 2009 at 15:26:56

On a personal level, I've traveled to three continents other than N.A., but unfortunately only had time to spend about a week in England and haven't traveled to Europe outside of that. I do enjoy talking to people from other countries when I have a chance, but thanking back about it, drug laws isn't something that comes up often. My comparison to other European countries wasn't due to my lumping them into one culture, but rather that you felt it was unfair to compare N.A to The Netherlands. If your opinion is that the country is unique and incomparable to others, I'd probably disagree.

Obviously, I don't have the ability to tell countries what to do. And again, comparing drug law relaxation to pirates or illegal drug cartels is ridiculous and I'll leave it at that.

You seem to feel that people are forced to work in the sex trade, which is true, but that is bound to happen much less in countries where sex trade workers have legal rights and don't work under fear of the police as well as their customers. I would assume that no one (or at least not many) would prefer to work in the sex trade, but it's called the world's oldest profession for a reason and I'd rather see those workers have rights than not. Upscale neighbourhoods tend to use escort services, if all the government scandals are any indication. I don't know much about the current legislation or any proposed changes, so I don't know if the shop owners are required to staff entirely with their relatives. I have my doubts, but... I guess I'll leave it at that.

I can't find any recent stats on drug treatment in The Netherlands, if you know a site (or journal) that has some recent (even some good sites with historical data, I find it is usually piecemeal) confirming the recent rise in treatment rates, I'd be appreciative if you could share the information. And getting back to comparing to other countries, my point is that the reduced restrictions around usage are not related to increased use or consumption. So treatment costs are comparable in countries that spend varying amounts on enforcement. And I'm with you on the mandatory sentencing. I don't particularly care one way or the other (in all facets of law), but only if the laws they are enforcing are just.

Heroin. I don't know much about it, other than it is significantly more addictive that alcohol or marijuana (which I think is why it is in a different class?). While I'm not sure prohibiting it has reduced it's use, I don't know many people that at any age would have tried Heroin on a whim, but that's just people I know.

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