This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on September 21, 2014.
This month I made my first visit to the famed Red-Light District of Amsterdam, which hosts numerous marijuana-selling coffee shops and legal prostitution. Legalization advocates point to Amsterdam as evidence that legalization works, at least for marijuana. Legalization critics, such as former White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, believe instead that Dutch policy is flawed, generating crime and nuisance effects. Only first-hand observation could give me a clear view of which description is more accurate.
Beauty is often in the eye of the beholder, so die-hard prohibitionists might be unconvinced by my observations until they visit Amsterdam for themselves.
To my eye, however, the Red Light District could not have felt safer or more normal. Yes, marijuana was widely available. And yes, sexual services of all manner were openly for sale.
But nothing about the District felt unsafe, or suggested elevated crime or violence; I have felt less safe in many American and European cities. The area is full of young people, including many tourists, having fun or in search of it. Some were undoubtedly under the influence of marijuana or alcohol, or taking other risks. None of this “risk-taking,” however, was harming anyone else.
The absence of violence is not surprising. Prohibition, not drug use, is the main reason for the association between violence and drugs, prostitution, gambling, or any banned good. In a legal market, participants resolve disputes with lawyers, courts, and arbitration. In an illegal market, they cannot use these methods and resort to violence instead.
In 2009, the past year marijuana use rate was 11.3 percent in the United States but only 7.0 percent in the Netherlands. This does not prove that legalization lowers drug use; many other factors are at play. But these data hardly support the claim that prohibition has a material impact in reducing use.
It is high time we examine our failed drug policy in the United States, and that process can start with members of Congress traveling to Amsterdam, and with taxpayer money. You need to spend a little to realize a return on your investment.