It has been talked about for years, but it never got off the ground: the legalization of XTC. The new coalition agreement now states that Amsterdam wants to start a pilot to regulate the release of the party drug MDMA. What is the chance of such a plan being successful? AT5 asked three experts about the conditions and consequences of legal MDMA.
For this plan, Amsterdam wants to join a state MDMA committee, which is currently being set up in The Hague and should start later this year. The aim is to limit the health and safety risks of MDMA through legalization.
Controlled issuance
Floor van Bakkum, prevention manager at Jellinek, is positive about this plan: “The current drug policy is more than a hundred years old. Drug crime continues to increase, so we think a fresh look from an advisory committee would be good.”
According to her, an advantage of legalization is that the issuance can be better regulated: “We are now seeing MDMA tablets of 150 milligrams with peaks of up to 200 milligrams. That’s way too high. You can control this by, for example, dispensing the drugs in blister packs of 50 milligrams. You can also add leaflets, set a maximum sales quantity and apply an age limit.”
According to Yarin Eski, criminologist at the VU, this plan shows that the municipality has a realistic view of drug use in the city: “A lot of drugs are used in Amsterdam and that will not change so quickly. The harmful effects of MDMA seem to be as great as those of alcohol, so it’s smart to be more liberal about that.”
According to Eski, legalization has the advantage that more insight is gained into the behavior of users: “If someone visits the legal point of sale every day, you start to wonder whether that person is, for example, an addict or is illegally selling drugs.”
Illegal production
Eski states that it will be easier to control drug flows if MDMA becomes available in a controlled manner, but does not think a legal release is sufficient: “You should then consider whether you want to control the production. Until now, we have always tolerated rather than legalized the production and supply of soft drugs. Those big players have had free rein in the criminal circuit for fifty years because of the vacuum between illegality at the back and tolerance at the front of the market. With MDMA we should not make the same mistake; if you legalize its use but not its production, you may attract even more drug criminals.”
Van Bakkum also hopes that not only the distribution but also the production of drugs will be looked at: “It is illegal in the Netherlands and we are running into that with the coffee shop policy.”
Legal Terms
The question is whether a legal issue is legally feasible. Criminal lawyer Richard van der Weide says about this: “If Amsterdam connects with The Hague, that should be possible. You can make exceptions to the current hard drug policy, as we now also tolerate the possession of a small amount of soft drugs.”
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems. Van der Weide points out that legal equality would be jeopardized if only Amsterdam was allowed to legally issue MDMA: “How does it relate to use in other cities, for example? So someone can legally buy MDMA here, while a person will be prosecuted for it in Utrecht. How are you going to check all that? That is legally very complicated.”
Netherlands narcostat
Van der Weide also doubts whether legalization is the solution: “It is a noble aim if Amsterdam wants to prevent people from coming into contact with poisoned drugs, but the real problem is that the Netherlands is a narco-state: fifty to sixty percent of all criminal cases are immediately settled. or indirectly together with drug crime. Think of liquidations, arms trade, property crime, money laundering and real estate that is bought with drug money. This places enormous demands on the capacity of the police, the judiciary and the judiciary. It is better to talk about how to channel these massive problems than about bringing more drug tourists to our country.”
And whether such a pilot has any chance of success? All three experts emphasize that Amsterdam cannot solve the drug problem on its own. Eski: “If the Netherlands were to legalize the production of MDMA, it would still not be able to compete with the international, illegal circuit.” Van Bakkum sees that all European countries are struggling with illegal drug trafficking: “Legalization in Amsterdam does not stop crime. This really requires a European or even global coalition, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for the time being.”