Drug Policy of The Netherlands

The drug policy of the Netherlands officially has four major objectives:

1. To prevent recreational drug use and to treat and rehabilitate recreational drug users.
2. To reduce harm to users.
3. To diminish public nuisance by drug users (the disturbance of public order and safety in the neighbourhood).
4. To combat the production and trafficking of recreational drugs.

By contrast, most other countries take the point of view that recreational drug use is detrimental to society and must therefore be outlawed. This has caused friction between the Netherlands and other countries about the policy for cannabis, most notably with France and Germany. As of 2004, Belgium seems to be moving toward the Dutch model and a few local German legislators are calling for experiments based on the Dutch model. Switzerland has had long and heated parliamentary debates about whether to follow the Dutch model on cannabis, most recently deciding against it in 2004; currently a ballot initiative is in the works on the question. New law to come in shortly in three provinces first including Maastricht and Eindhoven (covering other provinces including Amsterdam in 2012) only allowing registered members of clubs to go to the cannabis cafes, only Dutch residents who are at least 18 years of age can register but all foreigners will be banned including those from EU states. By test, a few coffeeshops in the south of Holland were already forced to handle this new law. Residents are complaining about growing criminality problems due to drugdealers in the streets.

The club owners organization state that this is discriminating within the EU which is illegal under European law. If seen to fruition, which seems likely, the new laws will reduce tourism in the Netherlands dramatically and cost the exchequer millions in lost revenue and well-established business are forecast to go bankrupt. The club owners argue that the previous law opened the door for other European nations with relaxed attitudes on cannabis to capitalise on the niche in the market and take the valuable tourist resource. Maastricht’s association of coffee shop owners lost in June 2012 in a Dutch court a legal challenge of the new rules against the city's mayor.

In the last few years drug tourism and certain strains of cannabis with higher concentrations of THC have challenged the former policy in the Netherlands and led to a more restrictive approach; for example, a ban on selling cannabis to tourists in coffee shops suggested to start late 2011. In October 2011 the Dutch government proposed a new law to the Dutch parliament, that will put cannabis with 15% THC or more onto the list of hard drugs. If the law comes into effect, it would prohibit "coffee shops" from selling cannabis of that potency. The government finds motivation from its experts' assertions, that cannabis of that strength have an "unacceptable risk" associated with its usage. Today, about 80% of the "coffee shops" sell, among their products, such kind of cannabis.

While the legalization of cannabis remains controversial, the introduction of heroin-assisted treatment in 1998 has been lauded for considerably improving the health and social situation of opiate-dependent patients in the Netherlands.