Soft Drugs in Amsterdam

Soft Drugs in Amsterdam

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1. What is your opinion on the drug laws in your country? Are they too strict?

2. Have you, or people you know, ever used marijuana?

3. Are some drugs less dangerous than others? How can we tell which ones are worse than others?

Vocabulary Preview

Mateh each word with the correet definition.

1. Nausea a. a device used with a needle to inject drugs

2. Syringe b. laws pertaining to thr regulation of drugs

3. Proponent c. a type of drug used as stimulant

4. Decriminalizatsion d. a person in favor of something

5. Intervention e. the act of making a crime no longer punishable by law

6. Sterile f. pertaining to injection into a vein

7. Intravenous g. clean

8. Drug legislation h. the act of interfering with a condition to modify it

9. Methamphetamine i. radiation designed to kill cencerous tumors

10. Chemotherapy treatment j. a sick feeling in the stomach

11. Eliminate k. to allow sb or to allow sth to happen

12. Prohibit l. not allowed by the law

13. Differ m. to stop sth from being done

14. Severe n. a warning that is given by the police to sb who has

Commited a crime

15. Illagel o. to become or to make sth become smaller

16. priority p.extremely bad or serious

17. quit q. to move orget rid of sth

18. Caution r. to stop doing sth

19. Diminish s. to disagree with sb

20. Permit t.sth that you think is more important then other thing

In almost every country, citizens have strong opinions concerning drug legislation. Proponents of legalizing drugs believe the consumption or sale of some or all drugs should be legalized. They say that "soft" drugs, such as marijuana, are no more dangerous than alcohol and advocate for the legalization of small amounts of drugs for personal consumption. Anti-drug activists, on the other hand, caution against the use of those drugs to both individuals and to society, insisting that the legalization of drugs increases crime, drug abuse, and addiction. What, then, is the truth?

The Netherlands has a unique approach to its drug policy. It is directed by the idea that every human being should be able to make their own decisions regarding personal health. The Dutch drug policy recognizes that drug use cannot be completely eliminated. It also recognizes that there are legitimate medical reasons for drug use, Such as smoking marijuana to diminish nausea associated with chemotherapy treatment. Therefore, it distinguishes between soft drugs, such as marijuana,

and hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines, which often lead to addictions. All hard drugs are prohibited, but laws permit soft drugs to be sold in coffee shops and used in "hash bars," as long as the buyer is at least eighteen years old and no more than five grams are sold in a single transaction.

What are the results of these liberal drug policies? Studies show that decriminalization of the possession of soft drugs for personal use and the toleration of sales of controlled substances have not resulted in higher levels of use among young people. The extent and nature of the use of soft drugs does not differ much from other Western countries. As for hard drugs, the numbers of addicts in the Netherlands are low compared with the rest of Europe. And they are considerably lower than those in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

Dutch rates of drug use and addiction are lower, in every category, than those of the United States, even though the US aggressively tries to prevent drug use by setting severe penalties for using or selling illegal drugs, even soft ones. Marijuana use in the Netherlands is half that of the United States-2.5 percent in the Netherlands vs. 5 percent in the US-and lifetime heroin use in the Netherlands is less than half of that in the US (0.3 percent vs. 1.1 percent). Drug-related deaths and the spread of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) among IV (intravenous) drug users are also lower in the Netherlands compared to the US, or even to other European countries such as France, Germany, Spain, and Sweden. Overall, the Netherlands has the fewest drug-related deaths in all of Europe.