Drug Friendly Netherlands to Close 8 Prisons...Not Enough Crime

[barman]

http://www.opposingviews.com/articl...close-8-prisons-not-enough-crime-r-1243396707



Drug-Friendly Netherlands to Close 8 Prisons -- Not Enough Crime


By Bruce Mirken

For years prohibitionists, including our own Drug Enforcement Administration, have claimed — falsely — that the tolerant marijuana policies of the Netherlands have made that nation a nest of crime and drug abuse. They may have trouble wrapping their little brains around this:

The Dutch government is getting ready to close eight prisons because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them. Officials attribute the shortage of prisoners to a declining crime rate.

Just for fun, let’s compare the Netherlands to California. With a population of 16.6 million, the Dutch prison population is about 12,000. With its population of 36.7 million, California should have a bit more than double the Dutch prison population. California’s actual prison population is 171,000.

So, whose drug policies are keeping the streets safer?

 

[texansfan]

So you're saying most of the criminals in the U.S. are there for smoking marijuana?

 

[texansfan]

I'll let the chief know that if we legalize marijuana then the cities crime rate will drastically plummet near zero.

 

[barman]

So you're saying most of the criminals in the U.S. are there for smoking marijuana?

No.

The author (whose message I endorse) is stating that over 1/3 of incarcerated inmates in the US prison industrial complex are there for either drug possession or drug selling.

Another very significant percentage is there for crimes affiliated with the illegal trafficking of illicit drugs.

===
When 21st century Prohibition is repealed, the number of arrests for possesion in Houston TX will of course go to zero from whatever number it is now.

The number of arrest for trafficking will plummet as well, since a street market cannot financially compete with a legal, regulated drug market

And the number of arrests for crimes committed between rival drug dealers will likely plummet to almost zero because I'm pretty sure that Houston at this time has an average monthly number of zero arrests for incidents of violence between legal drug dealers.

 

[festeringZit]

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Amsterdam unveiled plans Saturday to shutter up to half of its famed brothels and marijuana cafes as part of a major cleanup of its ancient city center.
The city says it wants to drive organized crime out of the neighborhood, and is targeting businesses that "generate criminality," including prostitution, gambling parlors, "smart shops" that sell herbal treatments, head shops and "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold openly.
"By reduction and zoning of these kinds of functions, we will be able to manage better and tackle the criminal infrastructure," the city said in a statement.
It said it would also reduce a number of business it sees as related to the "decay" of the center, including peep shows, sex shows, sex shops, mini supermarkets, massage parlors and souvenir shops.
Click here for photos.

 

[barman]

As part of their longstanding system of sensible regulation for both cannabis cafes and brothels, Amsterdam and other cities in the Netherlands have every few years forced the more fringe operators to close their shops

Left fully unchecked - rather than sensibly regulated - too many people were doing business as cannabis sellers or sex sellers and were not fully complying with the very reasonable commercial regulations in effect.

Smart move by the Dutch to keep a fair handle on these type of operations. And only possible because they do not have a policy of Prohibition against either cannabis use or prostitution.

 

[barman]

It's directly akin to what are for the most part, sensible regulations in the USA dealing with the distribution of the drug alcohol.

Enacting a 100% Prohibition against alcohol distribution would result in organized crime taking over the market.

However, it would be as much or more of a social mess if we permitted anyone and everyone to begin purchasing alcohol products direct from the manufacturer at wholesale prices and then begin selling those products at retail out of their homes.

 

[texansfan]

People make too much money from drugs, from the street level up to the CIA to legalize them.

Damn, I sound like Loren.

 

[barman]

It's certainly reasonable to state that the most powerful opponents to ending 21st century Prohibition are

1) The people who control the current illegal market

2) The people who are tasked with supposedly "fighting" Group 1

 

[texansfan]

Who controls the illegal market? The U.S. gov't?

 

[barman]

Who controls the illegal market? The U.S. gov't?

A combination of the major distributors of course. And their efforts are certainly abetted - though to what degree is not fully known - by the various government agencies at all levels - federal, state and local - allegedly tasked to "fight them".

 

[texansfan]

A combination of the major distributors of course. And their efforts are certainly abetted - though to what degree is not fully known - by the various government agencies at all levels - federal, state and local - allegedly tasked to "fight them".

Loren or TR should know...

 

[steaktartar]

People make too much money from drugs, from the street level up to the CIA to legalize them.

Damn, I sound like Loren.

@)

 

[barman]

Loren or TR should know...

Well, if you could get some of your colleagues working Narcotics at HPD to speak honestly, you'd likely answer a large part of that question.

But I understand their work is highly insulated from the average uniformed officer. A "force" within the overall force, if you will.

 

[nimue77]

A large percentage of those jailed in the U.S. are there for drugs and a high percentage of those are Marijuana.

So you're saying most of the criminals in the U.S. are there for smoking marijuana?

 

[D2bets]

I'm somewhat pulling this out of my ass, but my guess would be that if drugs were decriminalized and sensible laws were put in place the incarceration rate would be cut in half and we could close hundreds or thousands of prisions. But alas, those prisons employ thousands of people and many thousands more to arrest, prosecute and probation them.

 

[RaoulDuke]

I'm somewhat pulling this out of my ass, but my guess would be that if drugs were decriminalized and sensible laws were put in place the incarceration rate would be cut in half and we could close hundreds or thousands of prisions. But alas, those prisons employ thousands of people and many thousands more to arrest, prosecute and probation them.

Have to agree and prisons are big big business. Way to much money being made from them to start emptying them out.

 

[quantumleap]

I'm somewhat pulling this out of my ass, but my guess would be that if drugs were decriminalized and sensible laws were put in place the incarceration rate would be cut in half and we could close hundreds or thousands of prisions. But alas, those prisons employ thousands of people and many thousands more to arrest, prosecute and probation them.

I don't think many people outside the state of California know how big and powerful the state prison workers union is. This is one of the biggest contributors to legislator's re-election campaigns.

I think I'll look up how much it has grown in recent years.

 

[barman]

I'm somewhat pulling this out of my ass, but my guess would be that if drugs were decriminalized and sensible laws were put in place the incarceration rate would be cut in half and we could close hundreds or thousands of prisions. But alas, those prisons employ thousands of people and many thousands more to arrest, prosecute and probation them.

Correct.

The prison industrial complex within the USA relies heavily on 21st century Prohibition to keep the lights on.

 

[barman]

I don't think many people outside the state of California know how big and powerful the state prison workers union is. This is one of the biggest contributors to legislator's re-election campaigns.

I think I'll look up how much it has grown in recent years.

In my (always..heh) humble opinion, the California Correctional Officers Assocation is the most powerful union in the USA outside of the Major League Baseball Players Assocation and the NBA players union.

California has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the entire free world