Does the liberal Dutch drug policy work???

[cookie]

Despite spending countless billions and passing draconian laws, the United States is anything but a drug-free zone.

The percentages of those in the U.S. who have tried marijuana or cocaine are greater than the percentages of any other country surveyed, according to a new study.

The Netherlands, which has notoriously lax drug policies, had less than half the percentage of marijuana users and an even lower level of cocaine dabblers relative to the U.S.

Americans are world's top drug users: study

11 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Americans are the world's top consumers of cannabis and cocaine despite punitive US drug laws, according to an international study published in the online scientific magazine PLoS Medicine.

The study, released Monday, revealed that 16.2 percent of Americans had tried cocaine at least once, and 42.4 percent had used marijuana.

In second-place New Zealand, just 4.3 percent of study participants had used cocaine, and 41.9 percent marijuana.

The research was conducted at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, based on World Health Organization data from 54,068 people in 17 countries.

Rates of participation differed from country to country, and researchers noted uncertainty over how honestly people report their own drug use.

"Nevertheless, the findings present comprehensive data on the patterns of drug use from national samples representing all regions of the world," a PLoS statement said.

A vast majority of survey participants from the United States, Europe, Japan and New Zealand had consumed alcohol, compared to smaller percentages from the Middle East, Africa and China.

The data also revealed socioeconomic patterns in drug use. Single young adult men with high income had the greatest tendency to regularly use drugs.

Drug use "does not appear to be simply related to drug policy," the researchers wrote, "since countries with more stringent policies toward illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies."

In the Netherlands, where drug policy is more liberal than the United States, 1.9 percent of survey participants said they had used cocaine and 19.8 percent marijuana.

Twelve US 12 states including California permit medical use of marijuana, but possession and use remains prohibited under federal law.

And despite the US government's massive anti-drug efforts, the United States remains the world's top drug market, one amply supplied by South American cartels.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency has observed ever larger quantities of illegal drugs pouring into the country.

"We are seizing greater quantities of illegal drugs than ever before," said a DEA statement last week.

In 2007, agents seized 41 metric tons of cocaine in just two raids, and denied drug traffickers record-breaking revenue of 3.5 billion dollars for the year, it said.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hov ... 86VxCmwo1A

[aznyron]

cookie if the USA was to legalize drugs were would the CIA get the funds to over throw governments that the USA does not like ? since I believe the CIA is the biggest drug seller in the USA sold under the banner of organized crime namely costa nostra (mafia)

[laphanphon]

to decriminalize, and make available drugs, would do 2 good things. 1-put illegal drug crime out of business, 2-make it affordable, so that crimes wouldn't have to be committed to purchase the drugs. the 2 biggies. side effects, take the mystique away, now not really that interesting. love to dring in states till i was legal, then didn't drink that much more, hmm. cuts law enforcement a break, and jails a break, saving millions of time and money, enforcing laws that don't work. better time and money spent on rehad, education. provides safer drugs, more consistent strength, less OD's.

the reason why usa would never do it, there are too many industries build around the drug trade, or, illegality of drug trade, besides financing CIA projects. jobs jobs jobs, for the drug industry, and for the drug enforcement police, lawyers, manufacturer, enforcement people at all levels of crime, jail, probation, rehab. there's just too much money to be made off of crime. then of course the upper crust big business of distribution, pay off to all the dishonest law enforecement people. contracts to build, maintain jails, rehabs, and of course money making caritable organizations to educate and rehab every one else. money money money.

now if they could figure out a way to tax it, then it would be gov't appoved like the other gov't approved drugs that kill more than any others. alcohol and tobacco, but that's a lot of tax money, and of course, a whole new industry for the same reasons above.

money will always be more important the human life to the big boys in control.

[cookie]

Canada: big cannabis cultivation...???

Canada's spreading cannabis crop

In the first of two pieces on organised crime accompanying his Radio 4 series How crime took on the world, Misha Glenny visits British Columbia in Canada where homegrown marijuana has become big business.

As we walk into John's basement, the smell is so overwhelming it almost knocks me off my feet.

Man addresses rally in 2004 calling for cannabis to be legalised in Canada
Calls for cannabis to be legalised have long divided opinion in Canada

In front of me stand 120 marijuana plants whose thick bushy leaves cover the strong stems.

John explains quite nonchalantly that this is just a small growing operation, or grow-ops as they are known throughout Canada.

But he pays loving attention to the crop - adjusting temperature, light and nutrient supply - to ensure that it enjoys the best possible environment.

Every two to three months, John harvests some 8lbs (3.6kg) of his crop, worth about $20,000.

So even if he didn't work at other jobs, that nets him a tidy salary (untaxed of course) of about $80,000 a year.

'BC Bud'

Inspector Brian Cantera of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Vancouver believes that John's small grow-op is one of 20,000 to be found in residential houses around the province.

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That figure excludes the larger grow-ops in industrial locations, not to mention the huge dope farms that are scattered around British Columbia's vast interior.

If Inspector Cantera's estimates are accurate, then British Columbia is probably home to the largest concentration of organised criminal syndicates in the world.

The striking aspect of BC's marijuana trade is that it has gone beyond the boundaries of traditional organised crime groups (although some are still heavily involved) and entered into the middle classes.

Much of the revenue derived from BC Bud, as the cannabis crop is known, goes on paying college fees, perhaps buying a second car or making that holiday to the Caribbean just a little bit more affordable.

The trade is so large that the police in BC are faced with an impossible task.

Inspector Cantera walked me around a cavernous warehouse somewhere east of Vancouver where the RCMP lock up goods confiscated from people involved in the drugs trade.

The most spectacular items are the cars, speedboats and even helicopters which the traffickers use to send the marijuana down to its biggest market across the 49th parallel in the US.

These busts net goods worth millions of dollars but it still isn't enough to dent the extraordinary profits of the drug runners.

Border divide

Not surprisingly, BC's drug culture is very controversial both inside Canada and over the border in the US.

Many Canadians believe that the widespread use of marijuana is having a devastating impact on young people in particular.

A policewoman stands amid marijuana crops in Ontario during a raid - file photo from 2004
A lot of Canada's cannabis heads over the border to the US market

Billy Weselowski and his wife Kim have devoted themselves to helping vulnerable women caught up in drug and alcohol addiction to restart their lives.

Billy rails against those Canadians who are demanding the legalisation of marijuana.

"I've dealt with at least 20,000 addicts, and easily 10,000 will tell you they've relapsed on marijuana…That's the underbelly of what marijuana (is) about - what it's doing to people. And it's like alcohol - it runs an industry."

But the marijuana growers have equally passionate supporters like Michelle Rainey who has the legal right to cultivate a limited amount of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

It is the only non-addictive narcotic which helps relieve the pain inflicted by the debilitating Crohn's disease from which she suffers.

But she is sought by the US to face charges of conspiracy and money-laundering because of a legal Vancouver-based marijuana seed business with which she was previously involved.

Over the past decade, Canada has been moving slowly towards a more benign regime of toleration towards marijuana (although the current minority federal government of Stephen Harper vehemently opposes this development).

This has placed the trade in the middle of some intense arguments between Canada (and BC in particular) on the one hand and the US and its guardian on drugs orthodoxy, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, on the other.

If BC's marijuana trade ever did force through a change in the legal status of the drug in Canada, the implications for Canadian-US relations would be profound. This will be a crime story well worth watching.

Misha Glenny is the author of McMafia: Crime without frontiers. You can hear the first programme in his series, How Crime Took on the World, on Radio 4 at 2000 BST.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7519178.stm


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[saint]

does the liberal dutch drug policy work ? well it worked well for me everytime i visited amsterdam . what didnt work quit so well was seeing scagheads shooting up in shop doorways, whilst young children and tourists walked by. but i tend to agree with all of L A s points . especially the point that legal drugs do much more harm to society than illigal drugs ever will .