The Third Way ― A Plea for a Balanced Cannabis Policy

What is sensible when it comes to developing and implementing a policy with regard to products which in the case of regular use are harmful, but which at the same time exert a strong attraction, even so strong that people (may) become dependent on or addicted to them? This question relates to many illicit drugs, but these days it is, both nationally and internationally, mainly related to the policy regarding the production, distribution and consumption of cannabis. Generally speaking, the legalization of cannabis in Uruguay and in some states of the United States of America, in particular Colorado and Washington State, has given a powerful impetus to the discussion about the cannabis policy. In the Netherlands, that discussion has become increasingly relevant over the past years because of the struggle of coffeeshop owners and political parties. This volume offers the first English-language analysis of the situation in the Netherlands in order to make a contribution to the international debate on this heated topic. Since the 1960s, the Dutch cannabis policy has been an important point of reference in the international discussion about the policy that should be pursued regarding the use of cannabis. However, in international and foreign literature about cannabis policy the developments in the Netherlands are often depicted in an incomplete or one-sided manner, which has a negative impact on the quality of the international debate about what has happened and what should happen now. This volume seeks to redress that imbalance.

Cyrille Fijnaut was Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the KU Leuven and is Emeritus Professor at Tilburg University. Particularly in the framework of his research on organized crime and special proactive police powers he frequently devoted attention to the drugs problems and the drugs policy in the Netherlands and the European Union. He has published widely about both issues in national and international journals and edited books. At the request of the governing body of the Euroregion Meuse-Rhine he carried out – together with Brice De Ruyver – in 2008 a comprehensive and in-depth inquiry into the drugs-related crime problems in this “country without borders”. The results of this research project were published in the report With a view to a common containment of the drugs related crime problems in the Euroregion Meuse-Rhine.Brice De Ruyver, Full Professor at Ghent University, is national Drug Coordinator (since 2010), member of the Scientific Committee of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (since 2002) and Member of the Reference Group on Drug Supply of the EMCDDA (since 2013). Furthermore, he was involved as an expert in the Parliamentary Working Group on Drugs (1996-1997). Brice De Ruyver lectures a.o. Drug Policy and Drug Phenomena at Ghent University. He was and is coordinator of several drug related research projects and has published numerous articles and book chapters on a.o. the UN Drug Treaties, the cooperation between the criminal justice system and (drug) treatment services, drug related nuisance, drug related public expenditures, drug related crime and drug supply.