^^^ The article was a good read, I've read most of it. A little biased in the defence of Dutch policy, but still good info.
From the article:
Users of hard drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, are also treated
with relative lenience by the police. Even street dealing is tolerated to some extent, provided it does not lead to public nuisance.
I would like to see some stats on the amount of heroin addicts in Australia and Netherlands relative to populations.
I would also like to see some stats on meth addicts. Sure, as stated in the article, Heroin addicts aren't alienated and appear everywhere in the cities in shameful public display, thus turning youths away from smack, but meth junkies often don't look any different tha over friendly people.
I don't know those stats, but I'd be very curious to see them.
There is another issue to consider. Australian culture is very different from Dutch. The policy that works there may fail horribly here.
I'll give a little example. About two and a half years ago I visited Israel. This was about 3 months before a wave of suicide bombings began. I stayed just out of Jerusalem but spent a bit of time in Tel Aviv too. I have never seen a more peaceful country. During my two weeks there, I did not see ONE public disturbance or even a hint of it. Jews, Muslims and Christians living side by side happily. Now where is this heading?
Israel has a policy of solidiers never partying with their weapon even when on leave. One can see a person in civilian clothes with an M16 or a Galil (israeli sub machine gun), in almost every direction you look. We went out clubbing one night and a site of a hot blonde all dolled up for a restaurant or a club with an M16 slung across the shoulder is not uncommon. My 3rd cousin was showing us around who was also on leave from the army and he told us they have never had an incident involving a use of a firearm by a soldier outside combat inside Tel Aviv.
Can you imagine a couple of pissed Aussie soldiers on leave with live weapons handy getting into a bit of an arguement over who spilt the drink on who or over a bird? Can you imagine machine guns with live ammo on Aussie streets in the hands of ANY citizen? (In Israel military conscription is compulsory)
I live in Perth, and I can't imagine Northbridge (club center of Perth) to be full of live weopons and not having at least a shoot out a night.
This is a typical demonstration of peoples' mentality and how certain things may work in some countries and not work in others.