THE RECENTLY formed Dutch coalition government is expected to be handed a 40,000-signature petition in the next few months aimed at opening a controversial debate in parliament on the legalisation of all so-called recreational drugs.
The petition is being promoted by the Netherlands Drugs Policy Foundation, and has high-profile support from former EU commissioner Fritz Bolkestein and former deputy prime minister and scientist Dr Els Borst-Eilers.
It is a sign of the economic times in the Netherlands that the argument in favour of legalising drugs has moved from one of principled opposition to prohibition to one which highlights potential savings to the state of about €20 billion a year.
According to an open letter to the government from the foundation, published in a number of daily newspapers, crime costs the Dutch taxpayer €31.5 billion a year – of which drug-related crime accounts for at least half, €15.75 billion.
That €15.75 billion breaks down as €924 a year for each Dutch citizen, says the foundation, before the cost of enforcing the ban is included – a massive policing exercise which costs another €1.6 billion a year, before indirect costs.
Is this a bill the Netherlands can afford, the letter asks, when parliament in The Hague will be faced this month with a whole range of politically unpalatable austerity measures aimed at cutting an immediate €30 billion in public spending?
Accepting the foundation’s petition would mean the legalisation of drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines and heroin. If it generates 40,000 signatures, the government will be obliged to place the proposition on its agenda for debate.
“Not alone can the Netherlands not afford the cost of this pernicious prohibition,” maintains Raimond Dufour, retired lawyer and chairman of the Drugs Policy Foundation, “but if the laws were relaxed, the sale of drugs could also be taxed.
“There is also the principle. At the moment, drugs are regulated, but by a mafia, and they make the rules. What we are proposing is that government should make the rules – and that drugs should be regulated by law.”
The Dutch ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam are regarded as two of the most active staging points for international drugs smugglers, importing from countries such as Afghanistan and exporting throughout Europe and further afield.
The drugs underworld here is linked to murder, extortion, corruption, money laundering and, through the illegal arms trade, to international terrorism.
“If drugs were legalised in Holland, that would free up considerable police resources for combating the flow to other countries,” argues Dufour.
“Also, a country where there is no immediate domestic market might seem less attractive to criminals as a location from which to do international business.
