Drugs in Holland, Canada, and the U.S. Essay

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Drugs in Holland, Canada, and the U.S.

Drugs in Holland

There are many misunderstandings about the use of drugs in the Netherlands, also known as Holland. The truth is that drugs as rule are not legal in Holland. According to the Government of the Netherlands, the sale of "soft drugs' in coffee shops is "tolerated"; in those coffee shops no alcohol may be sold or consumed. So the country allows people of age to come to coffee shops and buy and smoke marijuana (or hashish), but the smoking of marijuana is not permitted in public places like bars or restaurants.

Moreover, members of the public are not prosecuted "…for possession or use of small quantities of soft drugs," the Government of the Netherlands explains on the government's website. What does the government consider "soft drugs"? The "Opium Act" sets the record straight as to what soft drugs are juxtaposed with hard drugs.

Hard drugs -- that are illegal -- include cocaine, amphetamine, heroin, ecstasy and GHB. These are listed as "Schedule I." But soft drugs ("Schedule II") are legal in small amounts; those include marijuana, cannabis products (hash and marijuana), and sleeping pills along with sedatives (Valium and Seresta) (Government of the Netherlands).

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Why are soft drugs legal? They are "…less damaging to health than hard drugs." That may sound like a very tolerant society, and it is, but even soft drugs are illegal when it comes to dealing drugs, producing drugs (growing marijuana for example). Small amounts (no more than 5 grams of marijuana or hash) of drugs (including no more than 5 cannabis plants) are legal and those persons will not be prosecuted (Government of the Netherlands).

Drugs in Canada

In a review of government policies in Canada, Dr. Diane Riley explains that alcohol and tobacco are "the most widely used psychoactive drugs in Canada," and those drugs cause "…by far the greatest number of harms and costs to the population" (Riley, 2012). And those two drugs are legal, as well, but the most widely used illegal drug is marijuana, "which is illegal but causes relatively few harms for its level of use" (Riley, p. 2). Twenty-seven percent of Canadians 15 or over report smoking tobacco; 23% say they use marijuana; and 72% of men and women over 15 years report consuming alcohol. About five million Canadians (21%) use one or more of the following: tranquilizers, sleeping.....

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