Drug use is unaffected by government policies

Unstable pragmatism: Dutch drug policy under national and international pressure

“…It goes without saying that one would also have to rephrase these questions in reverse: would a tightening of policy or more repressive measures lead to lowering of use, and so on. Although the Dutch experiment may be promising for future research into the dynamics of use patterns and policy, up to this point ª there is very little relation between the estimates of the number of addicts and the policyº (EM CDDA' s director Estievenart, quoted in Watson, 1996 11 ). In Holland, estim ates of heroin use and its ill effects are relatively low, whereas cannabis use does not seem to be higher than in other western Euro-pean countries.…”