> The following was in today’s (Sunday, Oct.8) N.Y. Times. I didn’t kow
> this, but heroin is essentially decriminalized in Italy. It is legal
> to possess and use for personal use. In the last three years, the
> number of deaths by overdose has tripled, to almost a thousand last
> year. Furthermore, almost half of the country’s 300,000 addicts are
> infected with HIV.
I was in Italy (Rome) when pres. Bush declared ‘The war on drugs’. I
didn’t hear anything about heroin being *legal*, nor did I read anything
about it in the papers. On the contrary, Italians seemed to be quite
concerned about drug dealing, in view of the problems they have with
organized crime over there.
Here in The Netherlands many drugs have been *decriminalized*.
Possession of a small quantity (for personal use) will usually not land
you in jail. But selling heroin or cocain is still very much illegal.
Selling marihuana or hashish is technically illegal, but in practice
it’s tolerated. Buying these ‘soft drugs’ is easy. You walk into shops,
that are clearly marked and easily recognizable. A sign on the wall or a
menu on the tables has the prices for the different kinds of drugs. No
problems, no interference by the police. It’s become so easy to get
these drugs, it’s almost boring. The use of soft drugs has been
declining steadily over the past few years.
Although dealing, selling or smugling cocain or heroin is illegal,
merely using it is not considered a crime. The idea behind this is, that
a drug user is not considered a ‘criminal’, but someone who is ‘ill’ and
needs treatment. Because drug users are not forced to hide, they are
easier to reach, by for example, anti-drug treatment programs, or AIDS-
prevention programs. There are methadone programs in the major Dutch
cities and needle exchange programs, where used needles can be exchanged
for clean new ones.
The result of this open policy is, that there now is a slight decline in
the use of heroin and cocain. OD’s have definitely dropped. Crack cocain
never caught on in Holland. The ‘domino theory’ (use of marihuana or
hashish will eventually lead to the use of more dangerous drugs) does
not seem to be valid at all over here. HIV-infections are still rising,
but there is no ‘explosion’ of AIDS. There is much concern about AIDS
reaching the heterosexual/ non drug-user population, through ‘heroin-
whores’, but that does not seem to have happened yet (prostitution has
always been legal in The Netherlands).
OD’s still happen, a lot are tourists (West-Germans) who don’t know the
strength of Dutch heroin.
Amsterdam city council and the Rotterdam health department have argued
in favor of legalizing heroin (with supervision on the use of the drug),
but because of international treaties this was not possible. I therefore
think it’s unlikely that legalization would really be possible elsewhere
in Europe.
King Han Gan – Erasmus University of Rotterdam – School of Medicine and
Health Sciences (almost MSc, two years to go for my MD)
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