Drugs and Drug Policy in the Netherlands

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11349019
AutoresEd Leuw (autor correspondente)
Ano1991
Volume14
Páginas229-276
Data de publicação1991-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCrime and Justice (BOOK_SERIES)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0192-3234 • E-ISSN: 2153-0416
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/449187
OpenAlexW1998216033
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19

National drug abuse policies in the Netherlands reject law enforcement as the primary drug abuse strategy except in regard to higher levels of trafficking in hard drugs. Dutch policy can be characterized as normalizing, pragmatic, and nonmoralistic. It accepts the existence of the use of illegal drugs as inevitable in modern society. Official reactions are directed at reduction of social and personal harms. The drug policy is based on the revised Opium Act of 1976 that aims at separating the markets and the social contexts of soft drugs (cannabis), and hard drugs. It focuses law-enforcement efforts on the higher levels of the supply system. Retail trade in cannabis is tolerated in numerous "coffee shops." The use of hard drugs is primarily considered a public health problem. Policy components concerning hard-drug use include easily accessible social assistance programs, methadone maintenance, other drug treatment facilities, and needle exchange

Business · Cannabis · Criminology · Drug · Economics · Enforcement · Harm reduction · Heroin · Law enforcement · Methadone · Methadone maintenance · Opium · Political science · Psychiatry · Public economics · Public health · Public policy · Social policy · Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research · Law · Legal and Social Justice Studies · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes