ABSTRACT
Prostitution is illegal in Holland, but along the canals in the “red light” area, nearly naked women painted up like the baddest of the bad actually sit in the windows—and they are not getting ready to swim in the canals! Above all, the practically moral Dutch have constructed their drug policy around the principle of “social peace.” The Dutch actually hate drugs, but they also treat addiction as a reality of modern life, one that can be reasonably contained if treated primarily as a health matter. After severe outbreaks of heroin and cocaine addiction started here with the “flower children” of the early 1970s, the Dutch came upon the idea of “harm reduction.” That meant not only stressing a health response to addiction as opposed to a police response, but also giving an unusual discretion to the police. Even a heroin pusher’s treatment would depend upon his behavior.
