DUTCH SYSTEM TAKING THE FUN OUT OF POT

It's official: the Dutch have managed to make pot smoking uncool. The
Dutch don't smoke nearly as much cannabis as Canadians, which is
surprising because cannabis use is legal in the Netherlands. What can we
learn from this?

Cannabis is not taboo, as it is in North America, under prohibition. That
could be why there is no real attraction for Dutch youth to take up the
practice. UN statistics tell it like it is: 16.8 per cent of adult
Canadians have tried cannabis, yet only 6.1 per cent of Dutch have (2007
World Drug Report, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). Yet cannabis
is legally available in one of 280 licensed coffee shops in the
Netherlands. Obviously, there is no connection between availability and
higher consumption rates.

Despite the lower rates of use among adults, and despite the fact that
Dutch teens try cannabis at much lower rates than North Americans, the
coffee shops are constantly threatened with closure. That's because the
drug warrior mentality has spread like fundamentalist wildfire across the
globe.

I met a few folks on a recent trip to Amsterdam, and of those who grew up
there, many said that they had not been interested in cannabis as teens.
Most didn't even try it until they were adults -- that's very different
from the Great White North. When teens in Amsterdam think of pot smoking,
they think of the chronically bewildered tourists they have to look out
for while cycling downtown. For many, smoking pot is just not that much
fun if there aren't any laws being broken.

Although the Dutch system of cannabis regulation works pretty well, there
is constant pressure from conservatives both at home and internationally
to shut down the coffee shops.

The legislation to legalize soft drugs came about almost inadvertently 30
years ago, and a formal supply system was never put in place. The
marketplace is regulated, and consumers aren't prosecuted -- but suppliers
can't exist. Naturally, organized crime stepped in to fill the void.
Unfortunately, that also means that hard drugs are never very far away.

"The Dutch approach is a better-than-nothing solution," said Chimed
Jansen, a chemistry student I spoke to, "but not a good solution. It has
left itself wide open to criticism by never developing a functional
policy. The coffee shops, while profitable businesses, face possible
closure at any time for a multitude of reasons: schools close by,
neighbours not liking the customers, customers found carrying hard drugs
during raids, etc. Not only that, they are forced to work with criminals
to function since the production of cannabis is illegal."

I was in Amsterdam because my documentary, Damage Done: The Drug War
Odyssey was being screened as part of Cannabis Tribunal. Former NYPD
detective Frank Serpico travelled with me. We were invited to speak
because Damage Done is about a group of cops, including Frank, and
Canadian Senator Larry Campbell, who believe that the "war on drugs" does
more harm than the drugs themselves.

We presented a copy of our film to the chief of the Amsterdam-Amstelland
police, who told me that he became a cop because of Frank.

Since the Netherlands is in the process of re-examining its drug policy,
it was an interesting time to visit. The famous open-mindedness of the
Dutch is being challenged by those who subscribe to a more conservative,
faith-based political dogma. When I asked my new Dutch friends what
Canadians should take away from the Dutch experience, they offered a few
suggestions: "Maybe Canada can start its own licensed coffee shop system
for 18-plus and from the start let every coffee shop appoint two or three
growers, who would then get a licence and pay taxes. That would eliminate
most illegal growing," said Mila Jansen, an inventor and entrepreneur.

A lot of discussion took place around public education. Society needs to
accept that drug use is here to stay, no matter how much we may want it to
disappear. There will always be those who use drugs, and who won't buy
into anti-drug propaganda or be deterred by stiff sentences. What we tell
our children is especially important: "Provide for an honest drug
education. Exaggerating or misleading kids only works miracles for losing
your credibility," said Job Joris Arnold, a journalist and drug policy
activist.

Legalizing tobacco and alcohol -- but not cannabis -- is hypocritical, and
kids realize that. "Just Say No" never worked. Try it yourself. Tell any
teenager that they can't have something they want, no matter how
innocuous, and see what happens.

The usefulness of surveying rates of drug use and abuse is arguable. The
rates of truthfulness with which people respond to such studies must
differ depending on whether one lives in a country in which admitting to
such behaviours could result in jail time.

If such studies prove anything definitively, it's that prohibition doesn't
work. According to the same UN study, the use of heroin and MDMA
(methylenedioxymethamphetamine) are higher in the Netherlands than in
Canada. Why the difference? Good question. The field is full of tremendous
opportunities for further research.

"Nobody knows the reasons for this difference in use levels," said
Frederik Polak, a psychiatrist I interviewed.

"Another point that is not clear is whether this must be seen as a grave
problem, a small problem, or as no problem," he continued. "In general it
is automatically assumed that higher drug use levels are a bad thing. Many
people see even unproblematic drug use as morally wrong. We want to make
the case that, for most users, the recreational and functional use of
drugs provides pleasure and enhances quality of life."

The lower rate of pot smoking in the Netherlands would certainly seem to
indicate that the way to solve our drug problem is to legalize drugs.
Soon, even prohibitionists will have to admit this is the case. It is a
concept that certainly warrants further consideration.

In Canada we are already struggling to develop an efficient,
government-regulated system of cannabis supply for medical uses. Once the
bugs in that system get worked out -- and there are many -- supplying to
the retail trade won't be a huge leap. Are there cannabis coffee shops in
our future?