Dutch Drug War Isn’t Working. Politicians Would Escalate It

The Dutch city of Rotterdam has been rocked by attacks on homes and stores. More explosions were reported in the first four months of this year than during the whole of 2022. The perpetrators, suspected to be drug criminals, have used fireworks, improved explosive devices and hand grenades.

According to local politician Vincent Karremans, who is in the same liberal party as me, one in four of suspects are under the age of 18.

Here in Amsterdam, police have also seen in an increase in teenagers selling drugs and taking part in drug-related violence, even assassinations. They are usually boys of Moroccan, Turkish or another immigrant descent.

The knee-jerk reaction on the right is to escalate the drug war. Give more money to customs and police. Weaken privacy rights, so police can tap phones without a warrant and share information on suspects with non-judicial agencies. Lengthen prison sentences for drug crimes.

But even Karremans, who is in favor of repression, knows: “that also causes unrest.” When the police get better at their jobs, so do criminals. The recent attacks in Rotterdam — some have been on the homes of family members of suspected drug dealers — follow the arrest and prosecution of prominent drug lords.

I?argue?in the Dutch newsletter?De Nieuwe Vrije Eeuw?that it’s time to rethink our policy.

Decriminalizing cocaine

“The war on drugs isn’t working,” the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, told a conference of Western European justice ministers last year.

Her city has seen an increase in cocaine use since the pandemic. Indeed, many European cities have, according to an?analysis?of wastewater conducted for the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Of the 66 cities sampled for cocaine, 38 saw an increase from 2021 to 2022, with the highest concentrations found in Amsterdam and Antwerp. Eighteen cities reported no change. Only ten saw a decrease.

A record?160 tons?of cocaine were interdicted in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam last year, yet a gram of cocaine still sells for €50 in Amsterdam, which suggests that for every shipment European customs interdict, Latin American cartels send one more. According to the UN, cocaine production is up 35 percent in South America from last year.

Argentina, Brazil, Greece and Portugal have stopped prosecuting people for possessing small amounts of cocaine. British Columbia, a province of Canada, and Oregon, on the West Coast of the United States, have decriminalized all drugs. Halsema would do the same in the Netherlands. Former liberal party leader Frits Bolkestein?has called for?outright legalization.

Pilot for legal weed isn’t working

Justice minister Dilan Yesilg?z, a liberal like Bolkestein, Karremans and me, would argue the Netherlands is primarily a transfer state for cocaine. If we legalized the stuff here, drug cartels would have a field day. They could legally import cocaine to Rotterdam and would only have to find ways to smuggle it into France, Germany and other EU member states.

But would that be so different from what is happening now? Yesilg?z raised spending on drug repression by hundreds of millions of euros per year, but the smuggling increased.

Cannabis and MDMA, the two most commonly used drugs in the Netherlands, are home-made. By Yesilg?z’ logic, we should be able to legalize and regulate those in closed chains…

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