A new global study ranks the Netherlands 9th in the world in stability and prosperity. The U.S. follows at a distant 22nd. I'll give you one guess where I'm going with this. Ok, times up. If you said, "Scott will argue that superior quality of life in the Netherlands proves that an enlightened marijuana policy won't destroy society," you win a cookie.
Indeed, superior quality of life in the Netherlands proves that an enlightened marijuana policy won’t destroy society, and there are no complications which ought to prevent anyone from understanding this. A bunch of white Europeans have been prancing around for decades allowing one another to sell and smoke marijuana openly, culminating in their designation as the 9th best nation in the world. Not to mention their progressive policies on psychedelic mushrooms, safe injection sites, drug sentencing, and criminal justice spending, none of which have produced outcomes resembling those we've been told to expect should we abandon our obscenely harsh approach to these matters here in the U.S. The numbers speak for themselves.
If you ask a drug warrior about this, they will change the subject, but it is just a fact that you can allow adults to manufacture, distribute, and consume marijuana and everything will be fine.
Indeed, superior quality of life in the Netherlands proves that an enlightened marijuana policy won’t destroy society, and there are no complications which ought to prevent anyone from understanding this. A bunch of white Europeans have been prancing around for decades allowing one another to sell and smoke marijuana openly, culminating in their designation as the 9th best nation in the world. Not to mention their progressive policies on psychedelic mushrooms, safe injection sites, drug sentencing, and criminal justice spending, none of which have produced outcomes resembling those we've been told to expect should we abandon our obscenely harsh approach to these matters here in the U.S. The numbers speak for themselves.
If you ask a drug warrior about this, they will change the subject, but it is just a fact that you can allow adults to manufacture, distribute, and consume marijuana and everything will be fine.
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Not as simple as that
I can understand your irritation towards USA drug policy. It is paramount to madness and the fact that your government has been advocating it all over the world only adds to the destruction it causes. But the fact is that Sweden, which is number 1. on the list (you can hardly call the Vatican a country) is quite fascistic in it it's drug policy, humbly following in the footsteps of USA. So things are not so quite simple, there are many other factors that have to be considered. One thing we should not forget. Where is the strongest resistance to the Drug War coming from? From USA. From groups like DRCnet and many others. You guys give us Europeans great example and intellectual ammunition for the fight. Keep up the good work!
Thanks!
One point though: That Sweden, which has repressive drug policies, tops the list doesn't refute our argument. The important fact here is that a country with the type of drug policy we advocate is ranked in the top ten. This alone demonstrates the absurdity of any claim that marijuana must be illegal in order for a society to achieve prosperity.
careful
there's a big difference between sweden and the netherlands, don't forget that! Sweden is a very small country with very few minorities. The Netherlands is also a small country, but only in geographic size and numbers of people. It has a huge role in international trade and lists dozens of minorities which make up roughly 13-14% of the population. The Netherlands has one of the most renowned Islamic universities in the world. Not to say big difference in population, but the historic reputation of Holland as a medium of trade and international cooperation makes her a very different country--in some ways, even comparable to the UK, France, Germany, maybe the United States. The International Criminal Court is in Den Haag. No, I would side with the article simply because it points out how a significant economic, diplomatic, and social player has enjoyed the success of a liberal policy, while the greatest power in the world chafes in social uncertainty and psychic recession.
Connection
In "What Americans Need to Know About Marijuana", the ONDCP propaganda piece (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/pdf/mj_rev.pdf):
"...marijuana use between 1984 and 1996 nearly tripled -- from15 percent to 44 percent -- among 18- to 20-year-old Dutch youth."
The citation number next to that quote is 56, which is:
"MacCoun, R., & Reuter, P. Interpreting Dutch cannabis policy: Reasoning by analogy in the legalization debate. Science. 278, 47-52, 1997"
In "Interpreting Dutch cannabis policy...", here's the quote that the cherry-picking U.S. government prohibitionists conveniently (unethically) missed:
"We conclude that Dutch rates now are comparable to that of the United States..."
The speculation that drug use would skyrocket upon legalization assumes that prohibition is effective, which a document credible enough to the prohibitionists to quote from, clearly concludes (over a decade ago) otherwise.
To prohibitionists, this has never been about truth. This is about perceived truth. They win, because they, by their much stronger public relations, determine what is truth in the minds of the majority of the public.
We are slowly (but surely) crushing their lies, thanks to the fine folks wielding the Internet to undermine the mainstream media.
The inevitable CSA-ending breakthrough will happen faster if we tap into the mainstream via a strong national public relations campaign supported by undeniable truth.
Truth (the real kind, not the lying kind) always prevails, eventually.
CIA Fact Book
Here's some U.S. government data comparing the two countries.
The Netherlands: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nl.html
The U.S.: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
Example:
Average life expectancy in The Netherlands is 79.11 years.
Average life expectancy in The U.S. is 78 years.
Prohibitionists remain antagonistic & dangerous to free society!
Ask any law enforcement official which domestic situation they'd prefer to avoid:
1) An individual or group high on liquid drugs... alcohol?
2) An individual or group high on marijuana?
Does anyone really doubt which drug has the statistically higher ratio of violence & death... even though marijuana smokers face much harsher penalties... including longer prison terms and forfeiture of assets... a drunk person would have to kill somebody to perhaps warrant such justice!
Suggest the following to any prohibitionist, or their legions of stooges & enforcers, and they'll try to kill or incarcerate you... and never mention their intellectual terrorism or they'll sympathetically proclaim you another poor 'paranoid delusional'... another victim of Satan's smoke... in desperate need of the type of compassion & rehabilitation that only an overcrowded massive prison system can provide!
Suggest that the 1st drug war, the Prohibition against 'liquid intoxicants' (the drug of choice of our European immigrants and ancestors... also the original 'gateway drug' ) which officially started in 1919 with the 18th amendment came about exactly the same way as the 2nd drug war, the Prohibition against marijuana... amazingly fast political actions by a radical Progressive Prohibition Movement (PPM)... how fast a responsible & vigilant citizen may wonder... less then 6 hours and no prior committee meetings!
If you're not immediately arrested or shot for your Gnostic rants, or hedonistically libertine crimes against their children and society at large, perhaps because your 'accusers' find you amusing.... like a cat with a wounded mouse or bird... they'll allow you to continue with your conspiracy theories.
EXCEPT... your lawyers sage advice starts to become audible through the cognitive dissonance dissipating inside your newly numbed skull... previously drowning out rational thought and hampering critical thinking (professionals commonly refer to this as 'caveman mode')... he's screaming at you to 'ZIP IT' --- because your 'accusers' will use everything you say and they make up against you, etc, etc...!
Most cops are unwilling stooges of the current Progressive Prohibition Movement! Cops are given great discretionary powers and it's unwise to provoke someone who may be and/or act sympathetic. However, zealot sects like the DEA are trained to react violently against 'druggies', however peaceful, however responsible, even vital, to their existence.
Facts confuse and threaten prohibitionists, and, they should fear the wealth of information and knowledge the few libertarian minded among us possess... not to mention the criminal implications the equally illegal 2nd drug war carries! If only we could get the justice dept to do it's job and strike down illegal laws... as it did when it struck down the 1st drug war in 1933.
I believe it's also long past time to start holding those responsible... accountable... for their serious crimes ... regardless of title or stature... had the supreme court held the PPM responsible for their crimes in 1933 when they repealed drug prohibition... we wouldn't be fighting these dangerous delusional criminals now!
But the fundamentalist PPM remains alive, newly energized, and enabled today thanks to her immortal allies: fear, ignorance, certitude, copious amounts of hypocrisy, and the heavy hand of the police state... so beloved by moralists and the purveyors of gods & governments!
Prohibitionists remain antagonistic and dangerous to a modern egalitarian society... their delusions, desperations, paranoia's, pretenses, and proclamations make them more deceitful, disgusting, and criminal then ever.
Bravo!
Many sage comments here.
Funny thing is that in Holland only around 10% of the population has ever actually tried cannabis. Most of the business is done with tourists (Americans, mostly). The great thing about the policy of tolerance that exists here — although it's not as tolerant as many think, and getting less so all the time — is that it offers the option.
I don't drink alcohol or do any other drugs, but I do like a nice joint of an evening. I used to live in Ireland, where this simple act made me a criminal. However, alcohol, the number one killer on Irish streets/roads/wherever, is actively encouraged by a government in thrall to (and largely with membership of) the Vinters Federation. Beer makes me sick and I can feel it killing me, so why don't I have another option if I want to unwind and, let's call a spade a spade, get off my face?
Nope. Gotta use the booze, otherwise yoo lose! How dare you sit, eat nachos and giggle at movies when you should be out puking on streets, getting into fights and making dangerous advances at young women!
Adaptability Quotient
Almost two decades ago, one of their own, the head of narcotics enforcement in the Netherlands, publicly proclaimed in a film interview produced by drug reformer Arnold Trebach, that marijuana is “No problem—no problem whatsoever.”
Regarding the Netherlands’ marijuana policy, the question that remains is what forces are at work in the United States that stop it from being a self-correcting society like the Netherlands?
If an answer can be found to this question, it will go a long way toward solving a number of different problems in addition to that of drug prohibition.
Giordano
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