From: monkeyhawk@cox.net   
      
   August 26, 2006   
      
   Op-Ed Columnist   
   The Czars' Reefer Madness   
   By JOHN TIERNEY   
   AMSTERDAM   
      
   Arjan Roskam, the creator of the award-winning marijuana blend named   
   "Arjan's   
   Haze," has dozens of pictures of celebrity visitors on the wall of his   
   coffee shop in Amsterdam. He's got Eminem, Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, Mike   
   Tyson - but so far, unfortunately, not a single White House drug czar.   
      
   The czars have preferred to criticize from afar. In the past, they've called   
   Dutch drug policy "an unmitigated disaster," bemoaning Amsterdam's "stoned   
   zombies" and its streets cluttered with "junkies." Anti-pot passion has only   
   increased in the Bush administration, which has made it a priority to combat   
   marijuana.   
      
   More than half a million Americans are arrested annually for possessing it.   
   The Bush administration can't even abide it being used for medical purposes   
   by the terminally ill. Why risk having any of it fall into the hands of   
   young people who could turn into potheads, crack addicts and junkies?   
      
   But if America's drug warriors came here, they would learn something even if   
   they didn't sample any of the dozens of varieties of marijuana sold legally   
   in specially licensed coffee shops. They could see that the patrons puffing   
   on joints generally don't look any more zombielike than the crowd at an   
   American bar - or, for that matter, a Congressional subcommittee listening   
   to a lecture on the evils of marijuana.   
      
   And if they talked to Peter Cohen, a Dutch researcher who has been studying   
   drug use for a quarter-century, they would discover something even more   
   disorienting. Even though marijuana has been widely available since the   
   1970's,   
   enough to corrupt a couple of generations, the Netherlands has not succumbed   
   to reefer madness.   
      
   The Dutch generally use drugs less than Americans do, according to national   
   surveys in both countries (and these surveys might understate Americans'   
   drug usage, since respondents are less likely to admit illegal behavior).   
   More Americans than Dutch reported having tried marijuana, cocaine and   
   heroin. Among teenagers who'd tried marijuana, Americans were more likely to   
   be regular users.   
      
   In a comparison of Amsterdam with another liberal port city, San Francisco,   
   Cohen and other researchers found that people in San Francisco were nearly   
   twice as likely to have tried marijuana. Cohen isn't sure exactly what   
   cultural and economic factors account for the different usage patterns in   
   America and the Netherlands, but he's confident he can rule out one   
   explanation.   
      
   "Drug policy is irrelevant," says Cohen, the former director of the Center   
   for Drug Research at the University of Amsterdam. It's quite logical, he   
   says, to theorize that outlawing drugs would have an impact, but experience   
   shows otherwise, both in America and in some European countries with   
   stricter laws than the Netherlands but no less drug use.   
      
   The good news about drugs, Cohen says, is that the differences among   
   countries aren't all that important - levels of addiction are generally low   
   in America as well as in Europe. The bad news is that the occasional drug   
   fad get hyped into a crisis that leads to bad laws.   
      
   "Prohibition does not reduce drug use, but it does have other impacts," he   
   says. "It takes up an enormous amount of police time and generates large   
   possibilities for criminal income."   
      
   In the Netherlands, that income goes instead to coffee-shop owners and to   
   the government, which exacts heavy taxes. It also imposes strict regulations   
   on what goes on in the coffee shop, including who can be served (no minors)   
   and how much can be sold (five grams to a customer). Any unruly behavior or   
   public disturbances can quickly close down a shop.   
      
   To avoid problems at the Green House, Roskam has closed-circuit cameras and   
   a staff that urges novices to stick with small doses, and to protect their   
   lungs by taking hits from a vaporizer. Unlike street buyers in America,   
   customers know exactly what strength they're getting, which is especially   
   useful for the hundreds of people with multiple sclerosis and other ailments   
   who use his marijuana medicinally.   
      
   Roskam sneers at the street products in the United States, which he   
   considers overpriced and badly blended. But he acknowledges there's one   
   feature in the American market he can't compete with.   
      
   "Drugs are just less interesting here," he said. "One of my best friends   
   here never smoked cannabis, never wanted to even try my products. Then when   
   she was 32 she went to America on holiday and smoked for the first time. I   
   asked her why, and she said: 'It was more fun over there. It was illegal.' "   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)