More than half of Dutch judges surveyed by the newsweekly Vrij Nederland think marijuana should be legalized, according to a report from the Netherlands Information Service. The weekly interviewed 489 judges, 22 apprentice judges, and 140 prosecutors.
More than half (52%) said "soft drugs," such as marijuana or hashish (and possibly psychedelics) should be legalized. More than one in ten (12%) said even the use, possession, or dealing of "hard drugs," such as cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine, should not be criminally prosecuted.
Although marijuana sales are regulated and taxed in the Netherlands' famous coffee shops under Dutch "pragmatism" policies, the sale or manufacture of marijuana officially remains a crime under Dutch law. The current conservative Dutch national government has attempted to shut down the coffee shops, but without popular support for such a move has had to settle for tightening regulations on the marijuana outlets and gradually reducing their numbers.
The Dutch judges are apparently a fairly liberal bunch. According to the survey, in addition to supporting anti-prohibitionist drug policies, nearly half (48%) thought anti-terrorism measures had gone too far, 41% were concerned about the privacy of citizens, and 10% believe that the Netherlands is on the path to becoming a police state.
Comforting
It is an injection of sanity to see that there are Judges who understand what Justice is. And who care about it, and care enough about society that they worry about the authoritarian and totalitarian directions in which the Western world is headed.
In the face of such comforting news it's difficult to insist on formalities, but we have to keep at it - journalists and researchers who present news items like the one above need to remember the meaning of words and phrases, and the role they play in the ideology of the War against People disguised as a War on Drugs:
- Cannabis (marijuana) is an herb, not a drug.
- Hashish is the resin from an herb called Cannabis, not a drug.
They are not drugs, and they are not "soft drugs" either.
Heroin, methamphetamine (speed) and cocaine are poisons. One might argue that the difference between a drug and a poison is one of dose, which is a big part of the truth. Nevertheless, if one is going to name entirely harmless substances as "drugs", then cocaine, meth, and heroin must be accurately named poisons.
The legislative and enforcement parts of the War are important, but more important is the mindset of the community which allows and tolerates it. The war for our Minds and Hearts is more important - keeping our concepts and perceptions clear is winning half the battle
Thank you for your great work,
Petros Evdokas
petros@cyprus-org.net
http://petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
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Dutch Canabis
I met a Dutchman at the International drug reform conference put on by the King County Bar Association in Seattle in 2005. he said the Dutch Prime minister told him the U.S. DEA had threated to take away his Most Favored Trading Nation status if they factually legalized the substance
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