More reports of nuisance caused by alcohol and drugs: almost 30,000 hits in the first six months | Interior

Over the entire first half of this year, there were more than 6 percent more such reports than in the first six months of last year: more than 28,000 in total. This goes against the general trend: the total number of nuisance reports in the first half of the year was almost 10,000 lower than a year ago, according to an analysis by this site of figures shared by the police on Monday.

A police spokesperson cannot say where this remarkable increase comes from: “We do not register under what circumstances those reports are made.”

Experts are also largely in the dark. Ralph Mennes of research and consultancy firm Breuer & Intraval, who is looking at the effects of closing coffee shops on behalf of, among others, the Ministry of Justice and Security, is in any case almost certain that this sector is not to blame: “The nuisance around coffee shops has been at the same level for years.”

In any case, the weather seems to have helped: in the first half of 2022 there were relatively few summer days, and an average amount of precipitation fell. This year it took a while before it got warm, but then it stayed that way: there were almost twice as many summer days as normal. Moreover, there was no significant precipitation on those days. Warmer and drier weather means that there are more people outside who can cause a nuisance, and more people who can experience something as a nuisance.

Wim van Dalen, director of prevention foundation Stap, sees that alcohol still plays a negative role, ‘also because many more people use alcohol than drugs’. Moreover: “The problems among youth and young adults are definitely not going in the right direction.”

The good intentions from the National Prevention Agreement, which should result in three-quarters of all young people not having drunk a drop by 2040, and that alcohol consumption among minors will go to zero, have also had no effect so far, Stap concludes in his own research. “Current alcohol consumption is at the same level as when that agreement was made.”

The consequences of this are not only reflected in the nuisance figures, Van Dalen believes, but also in the number of people who end up in the emergency room with a gulp. There are no recent figures, but last year the knowledge center Veilig.nl calculated that in 2021 no less than 6400 people under the influence of alcohol or drugs were involved in a traffic accident and ended up in hospital, an increase of 71 percent in ten years.

Incidentally, the number of reports of nuisance caused by alcohol and drugs has increased in almost all provinces, only Limburg has experienced a drop of 4 percent. In Drenthe and Utrecht the figures have remained virtually the same. On the other hand are Groningen and Flevoland, where the number of reports has increased by almost a fifth. In densely populated South Holland, the number of reports rose from 6600 to 7200 in the first six months.

At the municipal level, it is striking that it is not only the most densely populated cities where a lot of nuisance is reported. Taking into account the number of inhabitants, Zandvoort has the worst figures, ahead of Groningen and Arnhem. Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom are also in the top ten, just like Heerlen.