Drug Use and Regulation in the United States and the Netherlands

Marijuana is not legal in the Netherlands, despite popular belief. However, individuals who are found to be in possession of less than five grams of cannabis bud or plant are not prosecuted. Instead, possession of this amount is a misdemeanor in the Netherlands, essentially like a parking ticket in the United States. Furthermore, certain coffee shops are allowed to sell and store up to 100 grams of cannabis behind the counter and another 500 in the back of the shop. This policy differs markedly from the United States in which the Drug Enforcement Agency has made marijuana a schedule 1 controlled substance. Certain states have passed legislation allowing medical marijuana, but on the whole, those who possess, use, or sell marijuana in the United States and are caught can face prosecution.

But isn't the reason why the United States has adopted such a stringent policy concerning marijuana that it poses a real danger to society at large? Shouldn't statistics reveal that hard drug use is higher in the Netherlands due to marijuana being a "gateway drug?" Aren't the Netherlands spending much more on drug enforcement compared to the United States? Well, let's take a look.

Unfortunately I only have statistics from 1998, so we can assume that there has been a margin of change over the past eight or nine years. These statistics were taken from Kendra Wright and Paul Lewin's 1998 data survey for Common Sense for Drug Policy. In terms of usage statistics of marijuana between the United States and the Netherlands, the United States wins out in both lifetime and past-month statistics for the 12-18 age group. For those who have used marijuana at least once in their life, the United States has a 38% segment whereas the Netherlands only has 21%. Likewise in terms of past-month usage, 18% of the US and 11% of the Netherlands partook of marijuana. Although the United States has a larger population than the Netherlands, this is not applicable because the data sample taken from each was representative of the population on a whole, not taken from the entire population.

In terms of numbers of people incarcerated on drug-related offenses, the United states beats the Netherlands by nearly ten times. The United States has 645 people incarcerated for drug-offenses per 100,000 people as opposed to 65 per 100,000 in the Netherlands. This large discrepancy can help to account for the next figure related to the amount of money spent on drug-enforcement per-capita in these two countries. In the United States, there was $81 spent per-capita on drug enforcement in 1998 whereas in the Netherlands there was $27 spent per-capita.

These statistics alone do not provide a complete picture. Firstly, they are dated. More up-to-date data would be needed to make a more current comparison between the two countries. However, due to the fact that neither country's policy concerning the legal status of marijuana has changed in the past decade, it is unlikely that the ratios presented here would change significantly. Furthermore, other factors such as availability of drugs, urbanization, and demographics would need to be taken into account in order to get a more complete picture of comparison between the United States and the Netherlands. However, these statistics show at the very least that the Netherlands must be doing something right when it comes to regulating marijuana and other drug use in its country.