FRIDAY, 5
JANUARY 2024 - 16:57
https://nltimes.nl/2024/01/05/amsterdam-mayor-warns-netherlands-risk-becoming-narco-state
Amsterdam mayor warns the Netherlands is at risk
of "becoming a narco-state"
Amsterdam
Mayor Femke Halsema warned that the Netherlands is at a critical point where
national and international drug policy is violently colliding with
international drug trafficking, which "has become more lucrative,
professional and ruthlessly violent." In an opinion piece for The
Guardian, Halsema warned, "Without a fundamental change of course, the
Netherlands is in danger of becoming a narco-state."
She again
argued that the problems the Netherlands is facing shows that "the war on
drugs is counterproductive," saying that international authorities
urgently need to recognize this. "The prohibition of drugs is enshrined in
international treaties that limit the space for national drug policies, meaning
we will have to forge new international alliances that prioritise health and
safety over punitive measures," she continued. It may require taking a
fresh look at these treaties, and developing a global approach to
"innovative, health-centric drug policies."
Her essay
in the British newspaper may come as a surprise to those who only associate
Halsema with her recent attempts to clean up the Red Light District, and make
the old city center more calm by launching ad campaigns telling British
partiers not to travel to Amsterdam. But Halsema, who has held her office since
2018, has publicly maintained this position for years. In 2022, she told a
conference of ministers from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain that the
policy of finding drugs and seizing drugs simply is not working. The Amsterdam
congress was organized by Dutch Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius. Last
year, she warned City Council that drug-related crime will certainly rise in
the coming decade.
In her
article published on Friday, Halsema noted that the Netherlands is somewhat
lenient on people caught with a small quantity of hard drugs. She also
explained what happened when international pressure prompted the country to
make MDMA illegal as a hard drug included on the Opium Act list, despite her
opinion that the "relatively harmless" nature of the drug. "This
shift inadvertently contributed to the profitability of illegal MDMA production
and created a lucrative business model for criminal organisations, as evidenced
by the estimated 18.9 billion euro street value of annual ecstasy production in
the Netherlands. This experience reveals how efforts to align with global drug
prohibition trends can have counterproductive outcomes," she wrote.
She also
demonstrated how the Dutch, and Amsterdam in particular, have had historical
success by reducing health risks for drug users. "Since the early 1980s,
the introduction of harm-reduction facilities in the Netherlands, such as
methadone provision and drug-use areas for heroin addicts, has improved their
living conditions, health and quality of life while drug nuisance and crime
have decreased."
Without
global action, the Netherlands faces a tough road ahead considering the
development of the international drug trade. Those developments have had a
"disastrous" effect, she said. The violence no longer only targets
criminals, as she pointed to the murders connected to Nabil B., a key witness
for the prosecution of alleged drug lord Ridouan Taghi. B.'s brother was
murdered, as was B.'s attorney, Derk Wiersum. Investigative journalist Peter R.
de Vries, who was assisting B., was also assassinated on the street.
Now,
children as young as 14 are being caught as they try to help extract shipments
of cocaine by sneaking on to Dutch ports. The situation has only gotten worse,
she stated. More than 29,700 kilograms of cocaine was seized at the Rotterdam
port during the first half of 2023, up from over 22,000 during the same period
a year earlier. "While this may seem encouraging at first glance, it
actually illustrates the immense scale of what is happening. Our current
approach in the fight against drugs is like mopping with the tap running."
With so
much drug money flowing through the country, the capital is becoming a hub for
drug lords and organized crime leaders to launder money, send it to tax havens,
and spread it around real estate, business services, and hospitality
businesses, she continued. "If it continues on this current path, our
economy will be inundated with criminal money and violence will reach an
all-time high," she added.
"If it
continues on this current path, our economy will be inundated with criminal
money and violence will reach an all-time high. This leads to social
disruption, the deterioration of neighbourhoods, generations of vulnerable
young people who will be lured into crime and the undermining of the rule of
law."
Halsema
previously announced the city's Dealing with Drugs conference, which is set for
January 26 at the Beurs van Berlage. Speakers will include former Bogota mayor,
Claudia Lopez, and Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala.
Alec von
Graffenried, who is the mayor of Berne, will also speak about how his city is
looking to regulate cocaine and cannabis, and their success with dealing with
heroin use in past decades. Experts in drug policy, addiction, and law
enforcement will also speak at the event.
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