Netherlands - Dutch cannabis 'problem' a priority for United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

[Expat98]

Dutch cannabis 'problem' a UNODC priority

It's the headline the United Nations has worked for decades to create, and it would seem they have finally got their way, but the big question is "how"? Here is the answer.

The number of cannabis addicts in the Netherlands seeking help at official bodies has risen quickly since 1994, but heroin and methadone users decreased, according to the Dutch National Drug Monitor published on Wednesday.

The number of people seeking help at Dutch addiction aid organizations for a "primary cannabis problem" grew from 1,951 in 1994 to 6,544 in 2006. The 2006 figure was seven percent up from that of 2005.

The number of hospitalizations due to cannabis abuse rose 26 percent from 2005 to 377 in 2006, said the Trimbos Institute, which draws up the monitor annually for the Dutch Health Ministry.

Its not a new picture by any means. Ever since cannabis was de-classified here in the UK, government ministers from all parties have done all in their power to prove this was a backward step in the fight against drugs.

But the statistics don't tell the full story, as the courts have embraced a new raft of "powers" which allows them to offer a place on a drugs rehab program instead of a criminal record, for people found using cannabis. What would you choose given the choice between a criminal record or a stint in drugs rehab?

Thus, the amounts of people "seeking help" shows a meteoric rise, as has happened in Holland.

ACMD

According to the ACMD in the UK , cannabis use has shown a marked drop of between 20% and 25% in just four years and from we're sitting that looks like real progress, and shows a liberal drugs policy creates results.

Cocaine use on the other hand, has shown a catastrophic upturn in the UK and Ireland, as has the figure for people dying as a result of cocaine use.

Back in the Netherlands however, the number of problem users of cocaine is not known, which begs the question "Why not"?

The addiction care industry did register a strong growth in the number of primary cocaine clients, from 2,500 in 1994 to 10,000 in 2004. A massive upturn which would suggest the reasons the true statistics are 'not known' is because they are bad. Very bad.

The Trimbos Institute said the increase in demand for help could either indicate an increase in the number of problem users, or an improvement in the help offered for drug problems, or increased awareness of the addictive properties of the drugs.

Trimbos also signaled an increasing problem with alcohol, a very real social issue right across Europe and the globe, which affects more people than the entire illicit drug "catalog" put together.

In 2007, 38 percent of men and 14 percent of women in the 18-24 age group were heavy drinkers who consume at least six glasses of alcohol on one or more days a week. This was more than in 2006.

Between 2001 and 2006, the number of hospitalizations due to alcohol climbed from nearly 3,900 to 4,855.

The number of children aged 16 or younger who were hospitalized with alcohol problems rose from 263 in 2001 to 482 in 2006.

Holland's Books Cooked

Its not the first time the Netherlands has been made to look like a country on the verge of rack & ruin by the United Nations, as a result of drugs.

Recently, The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) manipulated statistics to suggest that the liberal Dutch drug policy doesn’t work. This statement comes from Professor Tim Boekhout van Solinge, a criminologist at the University of Utrecht;

‘It is no coincidence. The UN wants to propagate the idea that things are getting out of hand here. This idea is wrong: The Netherlands, on the contrary, are doing very well.’

Benelux

To substantiate his claim Professor Boekhout van Solinge mentions the 2000 World Drug Report, which stated that The Netherlands harbored the most addicts of all EU members at that time. ‘The UN had reduced the list of 15 to 13 countries by counting the Benelux, (BElgium, NEtherlands, LUXembourg) as one country.

This was a questionable simplification, because by doing so the country with the largest number of addicts (Luxemburg) was added to the country with the smallest number (The Netherlands).

These numbers were not properly linked to total population estimates, instead averages were calculated. That’s how the Benelux ended on top of the list of drug addicted countries.

The message for the public was clear: Dutch drug policy is not working.’

The UN are outspoken supporters of the war on drugs, the war against growers, dealers and users that should lead to a drug free world.’ Experts have been clamouring for years that this battle can never be won’, says Boekhout van Solinge. ‘Things are just getting worse.’

Sweden

In the meantime the United Nations see Sweden as the benchmark example.

Since 1977 harsh measures have been used in a relentless drug hunt. And this has been a great success – at least, that’s what UN reports say: Sweden has the smallest number of drug-users in Europe.

But even the Swedish facts are polished to fit the UN message. ‘The reports ‘forget’ to mention that The Netherlands have fewer total addicts. Nor is there any reference to the 8% of Swedish students that sniff glue. That Sweden tops the European list in drug mortalities, is also conveniently omitted.

When talking drugs, the UN is not a reliable source of statistics. These reports have little to do with science and everything to do with manufactured public relations.

"There are more international organisations that fumble with opinions and research to justify the war on drugs", says Prof Boekhout Van Solinge: ‘On a conference of the World Health Organisation on cocaine all experts agreed that an overwhelming majority of cocaine users are in perfect control of their use, which led them to conclude that cocaine wasn’t that much of a problem.

This conclusion was never made public under pressure by the American government,’ which hardly seems the way to run a fully accountable organisation to control the global drugs epidemic?

Another example? A 'World Health Organisation' report on cannabis paints a dramatic picture of the drug. But when you examine the documents and research used as a basis for the report, you learn that specific research was conducted to estimate what would happen if cannabis would be used as much as alcohol and tobacco are used.

The remarkable conclusion of this research? Cannabis would still be the least harmful.

But this information was perhaps unsurprisingly, also kept from the summary, which devalues the findings making them almost worthless.


http://pr.cannazine.co.uk/content/view/311/27/

Reputation Comments on this post:

	interesting article, thanks
	Thanks for posting this most interesting report