<b>A hundred years ago, it was all legal.
Question: Were society's drug-related problems worse back then, or are they worse now?</b>
In Amsterdam, marijuana is easily purchased in the Red Light District's coffee shops, while a complete selection of hard drugs is easily purchased from the many African guys standing outside those coffee shops. With it's policy of very lax prohibition enforcement, The Netherlands has an incarceration rate only 1/7th that of the U.S.
So... The Netherlands must suffer far worse drug abuse rates than 'The Land Of The Free', Right? Well, no
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm
Lifetime prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+)
U.S.: 36.9%
Netherlands: 17.0%
Lifetime prevalence of heroin use (ages 12+)
U.S.: 1.4%
Netherlands: 0.4%
Let's not forget all the prohibition related murders....
Homicide rate per 100,000 population:
U.S.: 5.56
Netherlands: 1.51
Also: There were 2.4 drug-related deaths per million inhabitants in the Netherlands in 1995. In France this figure was 9.5, in Germany 20, in Sweden 23.5 and in Spain 27.1. According to the 1995 report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon, the Dutch figures are the lowest in Europe. The Dutch AIDS prevention programme was equally successful. Europe-wide, an average of 39.2% of AIDS victims are intravenous drug-users. In the Netherlands, this percentage is as low as 10.5%."
Also:"The number of addicts in the Netherlands has been stable - at 25,000 - for many years. Expressed as a percentage of the population, this number is approximately the same as in Germany, Sweden and Belgium. , There are very few young heroin addicts in the Netherlandslargely thanks to the policy of separating the users markets for hard and soft drugs. The average age of heroin addicts is now 36."
Source: Netherlands Ministry of Justice, Fact Sheet: Dutch Drugs Policy, (Utrecht: Trimbos Institute, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, 1999),
The prevalence figures for cocaine use in the Netherlands do not differ greatly from those for other European countries. However, the discrepancy with the United States is very large. The percentage of the general population who have used cocaine at some point is 10.5% in the US, five times higher than in the Netherlands. The percentage who have used cocaine in the past month is 0.7% in the US, compared with 0.2% in the Netherlands.*"
Source: Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Drug Policy in the Netherlands: Progress Report September 1997-September 1999, (The Hague: Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, November 1999), p. 6. The report notes "*The figures quoted in this paragraph for drug use in the US are taken from the National Household Survey 1997, SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, Washington, DC".
Question: Were society's drug-related problems worse back then, or are they worse now?</b>
In Amsterdam, marijuana is easily purchased in the Red Light District's coffee shops, while a complete selection of hard drugs is easily purchased from the many African guys standing outside those coffee shops. With it's policy of very lax prohibition enforcement, The Netherlands has an incarceration rate only 1/7th that of the U.S.
So... The Netherlands must suffer far worse drug abuse rates than 'The Land Of The Free', Right? Well, no
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm
Lifetime prevalence of marijuana use (ages 12+)
U.S.: 36.9%
Netherlands: 17.0%
Lifetime prevalence of heroin use (ages 12+)
U.S.: 1.4%
Netherlands: 0.4%
Let's not forget all the prohibition related murders....
Homicide rate per 100,000 population:
U.S.: 5.56
Netherlands: 1.51
Also: There were 2.4 drug-related deaths per million inhabitants in the Netherlands in 1995. In France this figure was 9.5, in Germany 20, in Sweden 23.5 and in Spain 27.1. According to the 1995 report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in Lisbon, the Dutch figures are the lowest in Europe. The Dutch AIDS prevention programme was equally successful. Europe-wide, an average of 39.2% of AIDS victims are intravenous drug-users. In the Netherlands, this percentage is as low as 10.5%."
Also:"The number of addicts in the Netherlands has been stable - at 25,000 - for many years. Expressed as a percentage of the population, this number is approximately the same as in Germany, Sweden and Belgium. , There are very few young heroin addicts in the Netherlandslargely thanks to the policy of separating the users markets for hard and soft drugs. The average age of heroin addicts is now 36."
Source: Netherlands Ministry of Justice, Fact Sheet: Dutch Drugs Policy, (Utrecht: Trimbos Institute, Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, 1999),
The prevalence figures for cocaine use in the Netherlands do not differ greatly from those for other European countries. However, the discrepancy with the United States is very large. The percentage of the general population who have used cocaine at some point is 10.5% in the US, five times higher than in the Netherlands. The percentage who have used cocaine in the past month is 0.7% in the US, compared with 0.2% in the Netherlands.*"
Source: Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Drug Policy in the Netherlands: Progress Report September 1997-September 1999, (The Hague: Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, November 1999), p. 6. The report notes "*The figures quoted in this paragraph for drug use in the US are taken from the National Household Survey 1997, SAMHSA, Office of Applied Studies, Washington, DC".