Radio Netherlands Worldwide

I googled dutch drug policy recently and it says about the same thing - but this is not the whole story. Yes Dutch policy does aim for and deliver real prevention. The aim of coffeeshop policy is:- To protect young people, particularly teenagers, who experiment with cannabis, from exposure to drugs like heroin and the organised criminals supplying them. Dutch coffeeshops have a cannabis culture that has always had REAL zero tolerance of drugs like heroin and injecting. Alcohol, XTC and all other hard drugs are forbidden in coffeeshops; so are junkies and dealers of hard drugs. The result can be seen in drug services and survey statistics:- Junkies in The Netherlands that are seen in needle exchange and drug treatment programs, on average, are ageing by nearly a year every year - and the numbers decline by 10% to 15% a year and have done so for decades. This is because there are virtually NO new junkies to replace those who either stop or die - thanks exclusively to the protection and prevention in coffeeshops. All you have to do is get a bunch of Dutch movies that cover the last 35 years of coffeeshops and note the date made, then spot the junkie - you can watch them age toward the bunch of geriatrics they are today. Compare that to the young punk junkies on coke and smack in todays movies from the USA, UK, etcetera. It makes no difference which country, experimenting teenagers virtually always start with cannabis - that is why it is called the Gateway drug by people outside Holland. Stepping-up to hard drugs is common everywhere but in Holland - this is all the proof most people need to accept that Dutch coffeeshops are the only place on the Planet where there is effective and REAL zero tolerance and prevention of stepping-up to junkie drugs. Max