The Dutch government is the first in the world to officially approve the cultivation and sale of cannabis products to pharmacies for medical purposes. In May of 2009, the Dutch justice ministry announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in it's prison system. Germany's Constitutional Court decided on April 28, 1994 that the possession of soft drugs for personal use need no longer be prosecuted. Since then, most German regional governments now tolerate the sale and use of soft drugs. The use of hard drugs did not increase as fast in Holland as it did in neighboring countries such as France, Germany and the UK. One thing which did develop was the appearance of the 'cannabis tourist', people from other countries visiting Holland for cannabis. This actually brought revenue to the Dutch and was welcome. During the 1990's the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in criminal activity has since led to empty prison cells. The country now has a capacity for 14,000 prisoners but has around 10,000 current detainees. While research analyst expect the number to keep dropping drastically. Germany is now outsourcing it's prison system to Belgium, which is facing overpopulation in it's prison system. The Netherlands would get (30) million euros in the deal, and it will postpone the closing of two other prisons until 2012.
Resources:
- Netherlands Drug Policy
- Holland News and Info
- Netherlands Closes Prisons
- WA taxpayers pay a million to imprison a man who stole $151
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