Dutch government to ban tourists from cannabis shops

[Norgy]

I am thinking the Dutch may not miss Cheech and Chong that much. 

A friend of mine studied for his physiotherapy degree down in Holland, and enjoyed the weed, but letting, say, Northern Europeans (Scandis and Englishmen) loose in an environment where you're supposed to show personal responsibility with regards to alcohol or drugs is a bad, bad idea. Half of the students from Norway flunked out and ended up with little else than a nice collection of pipes and some interesting t-shirts.

What this story proves, I am not sure of.

[Duque de Bragança]

Good news for Portugal I guess. They should really put some heavy advertising into being the new drug land with Amsterdam being killed.

I don't think they will since there are enough drunk Northern Europeans causing trouble. What party would promote that policy ?
It wouldn't be enough to curb the deficit, anyways.

[Bluebook]

Liberalisation of drug laws is a good thing (tm).

How do you figure that? By all logic, liberalisation of drug laws will lead to increased drug use. No society benefits from increase in drug use.

[jimmy olsen]

Liberalisation of drug laws is a good thing (tm).

How do you figure that? By all logic, liberalisation of drug laws will lead to increased drug use. No society benefits from increase in drug use.

No, but that's hardly the only factor that needs to be evaluated when deciding how strict drug laws will be.

[grumbler]

Liberalisation of drug laws is a good thing (tm).

How do you figure that? By all logic, liberalisation of drug laws will lead to increased drug use. No society benefits from increase in drug use.

Actually, by all logic, legalization of specific drugs doesn't lead to increased drug use.  It can change the mix of drugs used (current laws favor alcohol use, which is one of the worst drugs out there in both social and health costs), but it doesn't increase overall use.

Druggies will be druggies.  What an intelligent and logical society will do is channel their craving for drugs into the least-costly mix.

[Slargos]

Liberalisation of drug laws is a good thing (tm).

How do you figure that? By all logic, liberalisation of drug laws will lead to increased drug use. No society benefits from increase in drug use.

Actually, by all logic, legalization of specific drugs doesn't lead to increased drug use.  It can change the mix of drugs used (current laws favor alcohol use, which is one of the worst drugs out there in both social and health costs), but it doesn't increase overall use.

You know, I see that touted by you pot-heads all the time, but I rarely see it backed up by hard facts.

I wonder what a society that had the same amount of heroin or meth addicts as we do alcoholics (or indeed any moderate-to-heavy users given the addictiveness of heroin) would look like. 

[Bluebook]

Actually, by all logic, legalization of specific drugs doesn't lead to increased drug use.  It can change the mix of drugs used (current laws favor alcohol use, which is one of the worst drugs out there in both social and health costs), but it doesn't increase overall use.

Druggies will be druggies.  What an intelligent and logical society will do is channel their craving for drugs into the least-costly mix.

So your argument is that drug use in a society is constant, and the only thing that is variable is the ratio of drugs being consumed? If one drug is removed, all users will switch over to some other drug. If a new drug is introduced, no new drug users appear, instead some users will discard their current drug and switch to the new one?

Sorry, Im not buying that, in fact I find the theory ludicrous. 

[Bluebook]

You've never seen it backed up by facts? It usually is.


Note how low the Netherlands are.

Certainly when I was studying in Amsterdam very few Dutch I met did weed. It was seen as downright uncool even.

What does that graph represent?

[Bluebook]

No, but that's hardly the only factor that needs to be evaluated when deciding how strict drug laws will be.

Ive never said it is the only factor that needs to be evaluated. It is one very important factor to consider though.

[Josquius]

You've never seen it backed up by facts? It usually is.

Percent of 15-24 year olds that are cannabis users:

Note how low the Netherlands are.

Certainly when I was studying in Amsterdam very few Dutch I met did weed. It was seen as downright uncool even.

I don't think they will since there are enough drunk Northern Europeans causing trouble. What party would promote that policy ?
It wouldn't be enough to curb the deficit, anyways.

Doesn't Portugal already have super liberal drug laws? Just need to promote it  a bit...

[Slargos]

You've never seen it backed up by facts? It usually is.


Note how low the Netherlands are.

So you're posting an image with no indication of what the values are, with ostensibly only one age group taken into account, where countries with far more repressive laws on drug use have fewer users than Netherlands.

And you expect to be taken seriously?

[Bluebook]

Percent of 15-24 year olds that are cannabis users:

I would like to know more about it. I could perhaps use it in the future. Is this self-identified users? How is "user" defined? One-time users or constant users? Are there similar graphs for other age groups? What is the source?

[Josquius]

You've never seen it backed up by facts? It usually is.


Note how low the Netherlands are.

So you're posting an image with no indication of what the values are, with ostensibly only one age group taken into account, where countries with far more repressive laws on drug use have fewer users than Netherlands.

And you expect to be taken seriously?

Yes.
The UK, Denmark, Belgium and maybe France and Germany are most comparable to the Netherlands and they have stricter laws and higher use.
Below the Netherlands are conservative, mostly poor countries. And super rural and weird Sweden and Finland.

[Josquius]

Percent of 15-24 year olds that are cannabis users:

I would like to know more about it. I could perhaps use it in the future. Is this self-identified users? How is "user" defined? One-time users or constant users? Are there similar graphs for other age groups? What is the source?

http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/stats10/gpsfig3

Have used it in the last 30 days.

But its hardly stop the presses stuff this, this sort of thing about Dutch drug use has been said a lot.

[Bluebook]

Below the Netherlands are conservative, mostly poor countries. And super rural and weird Sweden and Finland.

Yeah, Sweden is interesting, because we have among the strictest drug laws in Europe, and this graph might be really good evidence that strict laws works out well for us.