Netherlands Drug Policy

202211201927
Status:
Tags: drug Policy

Against the law to possess, sell, or produce drugs (based on the Opium Law)
Tolerates the sale of soft drugs in ‘coffeeshops’ — cannabis
No prosecution for possession of small quantities of soft drugs.
Recreational use of drugs is tolerated, while possession and trade are tolerated under specific circumstances
- A drug-free Dutch society is unrealistic, and efforts are better spent trying to minimize harm caused by recreational drug use — gedoogbeleid (“policy of tolerance”)
Absent from the toleration of drugs is production, particularly cannabis — paradoxical system has formed where coffeeshops are allowed to buy and sell soft drugs, but production is almost always punished.

Scheduling

Schedule I (hard drugs) — heroin, cocaine, amph, ecstasy, GHB
Schedule II (soft drugs) — cannabis, sleeping pills (incl. benzodiazepines)