Drug Policy
Drugs in the Netherlands are believed to be legal. The toleration towards soft drugs by the Dutch government and the society makes the urban legend easy to feed for the tourists and foreign people. It is still illegal to sell, export, import, produce or process drugs of any kind. However, in 1970 cannabis and hashish were decriminalized since the government of the Netherlands decided that the crime created by the illegal drug trade had to be decreased. The Dutch government found that the crimes caused by drugs were by far worse than the threat to society and public health from the drugs themselves.

Now an individual is allowed to have 3 grams of cannabis, and over 30 grams is seen as an offense and will be prosecuted. The coffeeshops are allowed to have 500 grams of soft drugs and can not sell more then 3 gram per day per person over 16 years of age. Coffeeshop may not advertise, can not sell hard drugs, sell wholesale or disturb the public. The coffeeshops are set in designated areas . Governments of each city can decide if they want to allow coffeeshops in their city and how many they want to have.
The coffeeshops divide the soft drugs from the hard drugs. This hinders people who want to use soft drugs from coming in contact with the hard drug criminals. This separation also makes garduation to hard drugs through soft drugs a little bit more difficult.

Drug addicts can easily find help, and the drug policy works through a close cooperation between the Ministry of Welfare, Health and Cultural Affairs and the Ministry of Justice at national level. Health care centres provide clean needles for heroine addicts and it is possible to get methadone for addiction treatment. Dutch schools talk openly about the cause and effects of using drugs and there are labels on 'smart' drug packages that explain what might happen if you take the drug.

The drug policy of the Netherlands didn't help to prevent people from using soft drugs and it's a myth to believe that less Dutch people are using soft drugs. But this wasn't the purpose of the Dutch drug policy. By shifting the soft drugs into hands of each city government, coffeeshop owners and health care center the social problems created by drug users are not present. The designated areas prevent that the drug users come into the more mainstreams of the city and the people who don't want to have anything to do with it don't have to see it. Drug addicts can get help without feeling afraid of being pursued and put in jail.

Overall, decriminalizing soft drugs in the Netherlands has not made it into an area with the highest level of use in Europe nor extra high use patterns.