AMSTERDAM, Nov 5 (Reuters) – The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands’ well-known tolerance of the drug, according to a regional study published on Thursday. Among adults in the Netherlands, 5.4 percent used cannabis, compared with the European average of 6.8 percent, according to an annual report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, using latest available figures.

A higher percentage of adults in Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and France took cannabis last year, the EU agency said, with the highest being Italy at 14.6 percent. Usage in Italy used to be among the lowest at below 10 percent a decade ago.

The policy on soft drugs in the Netherlands, one of the most liberal in Europe, allows for the sale of marijuana at “coffee shops”, which the Dutch have allowed to operate for decades, and possession of less than 5 grams (0.18 oz).

The full report is available here.  Some interesting stats of note:

• While 41% or 102 million Americans have tried cannabis in their lifetime, only 22% or 74 million Europeans have.  Interestingly, there are about the same number of Europeans as Americans who will use cannabis this year (about 22 million) and this month (12 million), but of course that represents a lower percentage of population since America has 304 million and Europe has 491 million.
• While cannabis represents 49.8% of all drug law arrests in America, it represents between 55% and 85% of all drug offenses in the majority of European countries.
• While 25% of American 15-16-year-olds have tried cannabis in the past year, only 15% of European 15-16-year-olds have.  The same percentage of 15-16-year-olds in the Netherlands used cannabis in the past year as in the USA, 25%.
• The greatest decrease among European countries in the prevalence of cannabis use among young adults aged 15-34 has occurred in the United Kingdom since 2003, where past year use has dropped by a third.  Incidentally, 2003 was the year the UK downgraded cannabis to a Class C offense, essentially decriminalizing it.

Well, I guess this means that American cops aren’t the only ones who can’t tell hemp from marijuana…

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – Dutch police thought they had a big pot bust — but it turns out to be a big embarrassment.

Police proudly announced earlier this week that they’d found more than 47,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of nearly $6.5 million.

After officers had half the field mowed down, they learned the plants were part of an officially sanctioned university research project.

Scientists at the school (Wageningen University) say they were growing a new strain of hemp.

The researchers say their hemp is related to the marijuana plant, but with only trace amounts of THC, the chemical that gives pot its high.

The school says the hemp field was part of a project to develop a sustainable source of fiber.

CBS News has jumped on the cannabusiness bandwagon by opening up a series of reports on the surging popularity of marijuana legalization.  While some of the reports are even-handed and a few are even positive, there always seems to be something in the article to undermine the legitimacy of our cause.

Exhibit A: the “Wild West” atmosphere of California’s Prop 215 is implied to be the state of medical marijuana elsewhere.

In the back of [Richard Lee's] Blue Sky Coffee Shop there’s a steady stream of cash buyers, and not just for coffee.

“In the front you get the coffee and pastries, and in the back you get the cannabis,” Lee said.

A salesman told customers, “You’re welcome to pull the bags out and smell the herb as you like.”

What’s going on here is illegal under federal law, but permitted under California law that since 1996 has allowed marijuana for medical use.

A dozen other states have similar laws.

No, a dozen other states have much tighter laws than does California, with only Colorado having anything that approaches “In the front you get the coffee and pastries, and in the back you get the cannabis” shops.  But to the average reader in central Pennsylvania hearing the story, he thinks a vote for a medical marijuana bill that doesn’t even allow the fundamental right to grow your own means an Amsterdam-style coffee shop is opening next to the Amish market in Lancaster.

Exhibit B: demonstrable falsehoods go unquestioned in the media’s attempt to be “fair and balanced”.

And drug fighters warn aging boomers that marijuana isn’t the gentle weed they remember. Today’s pot is a whole different kettle of fish

“The marijuana of the 1960s and Woodstock is not what’s being sold on the streets in the United States today, said Chief Bernard Melekian, head of the California Police Chiefs Association. “The narcotic portion, the THC of marijuana in the ’60s, hovered around one or two percent. THC today is around 27 to 30 percent.

If Chief Melekian can find me a baby boomer who smoked 1% THC pot, he’ll have a story, because finding one would be like finding a unicorn; they just don’t exist.  But do the media do some fact-checking to find the government’s own sources tell us that average THC potency was 4%-5% back in the day and now comes in at 8%-10%?  Or that in foreign countries with medical marijuana like the Netherlands, 13% is the minimum acceptable potency and some medical strains are 18%?  Or do they mention that 100% THC in pill form is completely legal?

Nope.  If one person says medical marijuana is good, they have to find someone to say it is bad, no matter how egregious the lie, so they can be “neutral”.  Sorry, but Bill Maher’s right on this one: sometimes the facts are all on one side and to present the issue as if there is truly a controversy where none exists is a disservice to the truth – something I was raised to believe journalists were duty bound to seek.

Dutch coffee shops that sell cannabis should should cater mainly for local people and not bulk-buying drugs tourists from abroad, a government commission proposed Thursday.

The commission was set up in February to advise the government in a re-evaluation of soft-drug policy, in large part due to an influx of German, French and Belgian drugs tourists in border areas.

The government should consider turning coffee shops, establishments with special licences to sell marijuana, into private members’ clubs, it recommended.

This has already been done in the southern Limburg province, which announced recently its coffee shops would in future sell soft drugs only to patrons with membership cards.

And last September, Roosendaal and Bergen-op-Zoom, two other border councils, announced in March the closure from September of all eight their coffee shops in a bid to curb the “nuisance” of 25,000 drug tourists per week.

via The New Straits Times Online.

Fortunately the coalition that is proposing this measure hasn’t the power in parliament to achieve it.  Former NORML director and current editor of Marijuana News Richard Cowan tells me by email that this proposal would “go over like a lead balloon in Amsterdam.”

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.

Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak announced on Tuesday that eight prisons will be closed, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Natural redundancy and other measures should prevent any forced lay-offs, the minister said.

The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry’s research department expects to continue for some time.

via nrc.nl – International – Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals.

Remember this the next time a prohibitionist tells you how terrible things became once the Dutch began tolerating sales and use of marijuana in coffee shops.  They’re closing prisons because they haven’t enough criminals; we’re home to the largest imprisoned population on the planet in history.

Although I’ve been to The Netherlands, it was at a time of my life when Cannabis was prohibited from being in my urine. I had always hoped to have the chance to go once again but with the opportunity to enjoy the annual Cannabis Cup in November. It appears as though my dreams have been cashed away like a burnt bowl.

ABOUT 30 cannabis-selling coffee shops in the south of the Netherlands announced yesterday they would become private members’ clubs at the start of next year to keep out foreign drug tourists.

“We will transform the coffee shops from open establishments, accessible by all, to closed establishments of which clients need to be members,” Maastricht Mayor Gerd Leers said, in the Limburg province move away from a liberal Dutch approach to soft drugs.

The membership process would take days, effectively preventing up to four million short-term tourists buying marijuana. The move is backed by the national government and is seen as a pilot project.

Source: Advertiser, The (Adelaide), May 14, 2009, p39, 1p
Section: Foreign Edition: 1 – State
Item: 200905141039629407

I know not to go where I’m not wanted, and it’s obvious the Coffee Shops in The Netherlands don’t want tourists any longer.   My wallet will be a little happier because Jamaica is closer to home anyway.   Besides, the best pot is grown in California.

[Good call, Dudemaster, though everyone knows the best pot is grown in Oregon.    Keep in mind, though, that Maastricht is as different from Amsterdam as Dallas is from Berkeley.  I don't think the coffee shops for tourists are going to completely disappear any time soon. -- "R"R]

It’s only a matter of time before some grower develops a strain called “Sarah Connor” and Terminators from the future are sent back to eradicate it…

Does anyone else think unmanned aerial drones spying on our citizenry will make excellent target practice for a nation of free people who love firearms?

Rick Steves is the internationally-known travel writer who’s famous for his “Guide to Europe” series.  He is also a longtime advisory board member of NORML.  Following is the letter he has composed to every legislator in his home state of Washington to support marijuana decriminalization:

Dear Legislator,

I’d like to offer my view on SB 5615, which reclassifies possession of marijuana by adults to a civil infraction. I realize that the deadline for SB 5615 to receive a floor vote in the Senate was March 12, but I am looking forward to further consideration of this important bill when it carries over to the 2010 session.

For nearly a decade I’ve been a spokesperson for changing our “war on marijuana” to something more pragmatic, similar to the European model. I speak out publicly on this issue not because I’m “pro-drugs,” but because I believe (like most Europeans do) that the measure of a society’s drug policy should be in harm reduction rather than incarceration.

I want to be clear: smoking marijuana is bad for your health. I am not “pro-marijuana,” nor am I in favor of making it available to minors. And if anyone causes damage or danger while intoxicated on anything, I believe we should throw the book at them. But I do not believe that we should use our criminal justice system to address a public health issue, and as a matter of principle, I believe that the responsible adult recreational use of marijuana is a civil liberty. Apart from all that, it is clear that the existing “war on marijuana” is costing our society more than the ills brought on by marijuana—and there’s no sign that continuing this war will make any difference.

Some may worry that supporting SB 5615 might look “soft on drugs,” or that it will “send the wrong message” to our youth. But rather than “soft on drugs” or “hard on drugs,” I think this bill is smart on drugs: as the fiscal note points out, it would save $16 million in prosecution, jail, and court costs, plus generate $1 million in new revenue, $590,000 of which would be earmarked for underfunded drug treatment and prevention. Our nation spends roughly $10 billion a year arresting 873,000 people for marijuana (90% for simple possession), and we have 80,000 Americans in jail today for marijuana offenses. Even in my town of Edmonds, statistics show that roughly a quarter of all non-traffic misdemeanor arrests are marijuana-related. What do we have to show for all those arrests and tax dollars? Over 40% of Americans have tried marijuana. The message that our youth receive now is that our government exaggerates – or lies – when it comes to marijuana. That makes it really hard for parents and teachers to be convincing when it comes to talking about the dangers of other drugs.

While some Americans might fear that decriminalizing marijuana will lead to increased use and abuse, the track record in the Netherlands (where recreational marijuana offenses have not been prosecuted since 1976) demonstrates otherwise. By all government statistics, Americans consume roughly twice the pot per capita that the Dutch do. Meanwhile, in most of Europe, a joint causes about as much excitement as a can of beer. And after more than 30 years of not arresting pot smokers in the Netherlands, Dutch police recognize that use doesn’t increase appreciably—and they are generally thankful they don’t have to enforce a law they know brings more harm than the drug it’s designed to deal with.

The experience of the Netherlands is echoed in the twelve states that decriminalized over thirty years ago, shortly after Nixon’s National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (the “Shafer Commission”) recommended decriminalizing personal possession and not-for-profit distribution of small amounts of marijuana. Use rates did not increase. Nor did they increase in Seattle after adult personal use of marijuana became the city’s lowest law enforcement priority in 2003.

Today’s war on marijuana is as illogical and ineffective as our prohibition against alcohol was in the 1930s. It took courageous people to finally stand up against a law that was bringing so much pain and violence to their society. When they finally repealed the laws against alcohol, no one was saying, “Booze is good.” Instead, they learned that you don’t stop people from drinking by making it a crime – you simply create worse problems for yourself. Today, we rely on regulation, prevention, and treatment to address alcohol’s use in our society.

I’ve been speaking publicly about marijuana reform for years now. I just gave a lecture last week to 2,000 people in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and they applauded when I explained my rationale for promoting the legalization of marijuana. My experiences advocating drug law reform have taught me that many Americans feel the same way, but—because marijuana is stigmatized in our society—are afraid to say so publicly. Frequently when I am interviewed about this on TV or the radio, as soon as the mic is off, the journalist says, “Thank you for speaking out on this.” I was recently recognized in Washington DC as the Lutheran social activist of the year when my church gave me its Wittenberg Award. The Senators and Members of Congress representing our state in Washington, DC, understand (and, I believe, respect) my take on this issue.

These experiences have inspired me to stand up and say we need to take the crime out of marijuana and treat it as a health issue. This is a civil rights issue, a credibility for parents and teachers issue, a respect for our police issue, and a matter of financial common sense.

I hope you will take 30 minutes to watch the complimentary copy of the documentary I hosted and co-wrote with the ACLU called “Marijuana: It’s Time for a Conversation” (www.marijuanaconversation.org). For my other essays and interviews on this issue, see the “About Rick Steves” corner at www.ricksteves.com, or simply Google or search YouTube for “Rick Steves marijuana.”

I know that it is complex to deal with this as a legislature and I thank you for your thoughtful service. As a caring citizen of our state, I am proud to bring a European sensitivity on this issue home. It’s time we reconsidered our costly and actually counter-productive war on marijuana. If I can be of any help to you as you wrestle with this, please feel free to give me a phone call.

Sincerely,

Rick Steves

Coffee Shop Trial a Test for Dutch Drug Policies

In our ongoing movement of marijuana policy here in the US, we are often tempted to take any change in law no matter how small. Often those changes leave the more stickier issues of production and distribution for resolution at a later date. This is what has happened for many years in the Netherlands. Often described as the Dutch Paradox, you can purchase up to 5g and walk right out of a coffee shop, but there is no lawful way for the proprietor of the coffee shop to obtain the cannabis in the first place.

If Meddy Willemsen, the owner of the mega coffee shop Checkpoint in the city of Terneuzen, is convicted of encouraging illegal cannabis cultivation and running an organized supply chain, it could allow prosecutors to convict other coffee shop owners and workers on charges that are usually used against gangs and organized crime networks.

André Becker, the lawyer representing Checkpoint, says that regardless of the verdict, his client’s trial will set a national precedent. “If the court accepts the prosecutor’s reasoning, it would have great consequences,” Beckers says.

It seems that the state of the cannabis laws in the Netherlands is in flux, with Christian Democrats looking to ban it outright and mayors of other municipalities actively encouraging the opening of coffee shops in their towns.

A judge struck down an attempt by the city of Maastricht to restrict drug purchases to Dutch nationals. The towns of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal have shut down all eight of their coffee shops to keep away rowdy visitors.

Other cities are hoping to avoid prohibition. Indeed, the municipality of Eindhoven is encouraging the opening of more coffee shops in order to prevent the arrival of mega-coffee shops like Checkpoint.

We should never forget that neo-prohibitionists will actively search for any loophole to claw back any reform we seek. By allowing the distribution and production to remain illegal or in a state of legal limbo, we will always be vulnerable to having all we work for undone.

Despite the need for the projected revenue, opponents say legalizing pot would only add to social woes. “The last thing we need is yet another mind-altering substance to be legalized,” says John Lovell, lobbyist for the California Peace Officers’ Association. “We have enough problems with alcohol and abuse of pharmaceutical products. Do we really need to add yet another mind-altering substance to the array?” Lovell says the easy availability of the drug would lead to a surge in its use, much as happened when alcohol was allowed to be sold in venues other than liquor stores in some states.

via – Time “Can Marijuana Help Rescue California’s Economy?”

Several points need to be made here; the first is that we’re adding nothing. The vast majority of people that want to ingest marijuana in whatever form they prefer already do. I’m quite sure there would be a fair number of people that will want to try out the government’s ‘evil weed’ when (not if) it is made legal. The same thing happened in the Netherlands when their policy of tolerance was introduced. The people who had lived under Prohibition wanted to try it and usage increased. Now, a generation later, marijuana usage in the Netherlands is less than half that of the United States.

The second point is there would not be a huge surge of potheads any more than there would be huge surge of smack addicts if heroin were legalized. While the government lies like a rug when giving information about cannabis, they’re pretty spot on with regard to heroin. If heroin were legal tomorrow, I’d stay the hell away from it as I assume nearly everyone that doesn’t already use it would.

Joel W. Hay, professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC, also foresees harm if the bill passes. “Marijuana is a drug that clouds people’s judgment. It affects their ability to concentrate and react, and it certainly has impacts on third parties,” says Hay, who has written on the societal costs of drug abuse. “It’s one more drug that will add to the toll on society. All we have to do is look at the two legalized drugs, tobacco and alcohol, and look at the carnage that they’ve caused. [Marijuana] is a dangerous drug, and it causes bad outcomes for both the people who use it and for the people who are in their way at work or other activities.” He adds, “There are probably some responsible people who can handle marijuana, but there are lots of people who can’t, and it has an enormous negative impact on them, their family and loved ones.”

via – Time “Can Marijuana Help Rescue California’s Economy?”

Two legal drugs? It’s strange that a professor of pharmaceutical economics at USC would fail to mention non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin which kills 180 – 1,000+ US citizens per year or adverse reactions to prescription drugs which kill 32,000 US citizens per year. Well, not strange; just self-serving considering his profession.