Drug Policy Analysis

Drug policies have become somewhat of a hot topic of discussion in Europe and the United States and many other countries all over the world. In many countries, there have been debates about the legalization and control of previously or currently illegal substances, and this could change the dynamic of drug consumption and trafficking in the future. In the European Union specifically, there is no unified drug policy that all of the member states must follow. The law is designed so that individual states decide the legislation for drugs. There are two members of the European Union, in particular that have completely different perspectives when it comes to drug policy. The first is Sweden, with its no tolerance policy for drugs of any kind, and …show more content…
First there is Sweden, which has a zero-tolerance policy. “The goal for the drug policy as proclaimed by parliament in 1978 is to eliminate all drugs from society” (Tops). The country focuses on primarily preventative measures to stop both the trafficking of drugs but also the use of them by all citizens, especially the youth. It is very common for school’s the include curriculum to teach children about the dangers of drugs (Tops). The zero-tolerance stance also means that there is no room for harm-reduction measures and also no distinction between hard drugs such as ecstasy and heroin, and soft drugs such as cannabis and hash. This means that all drug use is criminalized to the same degree regardless of the …show more content…
This led to an amendment of the Opium Act that legislated the difference between soft and hard drugs (Sarkany). This distinction is very important for the Netherlands because it allows the government to focus on the hard drugs that are affecting it’s citizens and helping people with addictions to those drugs. There is one controversial practice in the Netherlands today and that is the coffee houses that have special permission to sell a limited amount of soft drugs, as long as they abide by the government regulations. In the Netherlands “the liberal regulation of drugs… is based on the notion that if one cannot completely eradicate [it], one must make it more visible and thus treatable and creating the possibility of the illegal element and its ties to organized crime disappear” (Sarkany, 34). Instead of completely hiding drugs and the problems that accompany them, the Netherlands would rather find new ways to regulate hard drugs and integrate users of soft drugs into