Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Compare the numbers to, for example, The USA. Pragmatic vs. zero tolerance. The former is much more effective.

Here in the Netherlands we are educated about drugs. People will forever want to try drugs, that's a fact. We have a very open society about this subject and I for one am glad that back in the day I could just tell my parents I tried a joint and be done with it. It wasn't special so I never did it again. Well isn't that weird since it's readily available in every city? No it's our approach. About 80% of everyone I know has never tried weed at all, nor do they feel the need to. Compare that to the USA or Sweden...

And getting addicted to anything is a choice in my oppinion. The better you are informed about the dangers, it becomes less likely that you will either never try it or just try it once. Here in the Netherlands we are informed. Heck, we even have testcentres were people can get their (hard)drugs tested (in very small amounts of course). This way the government can inform users, make sure that the people that do use, use responsively and also track where which drugs are prevalent in the country at that point (so they can go after the manufacturers).

In short, you know nothing of our drug policy. It's a proven method, just look at the data.