A LITTLE TOUR INSIDE LIBERAL HOLLAND

Holland does not make it to international headlines everyday but one thing
it is famous for, without the help of the media, are its rather bold
liberal policies towards the consumption of cannabis. That tolerant
attitude is in itself maybe one of the best examples of typical Dutch
pragmatism. If you cannot prevent it, then legalize it! To the
consternation of other European governments, mainly in London and Paris,
those relaxed policies proved to pay off; in the Netherlands, the use of
cannabis is significantly less than in Britain, which has adopted draconian
anti-drugs legislation and has one of the worst drug-addiction records in
Europe.

More important, the average age of those seriously addicted to hard drugs
such as heroin and cocaine has risen in Amsterdam to 36, compared with 25
in Britain. The Netherlands also has a much lower rate of drug-related
deaths per million population- 2.4 compared with Britain's 31! Those
figures are a serious blow to the conservative theory behind most western
anti-drugs governments that the use of soft drugs will inevitably lead to
an escalation towards more dangerous drugs.