The Netherlands. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema in favor of regulating hard drugs

Regulating the market for hard drugs like cocaine and MDMA is for the mayor of Amsterdam the only way to combat drug trafficking and its “disastrous” consequences on the economy and security of the Dutch capital.

“We could imagine that cocaine could be obtained from pharmacists or via a medical model,” says Femke Halsema in an interview with AFP.

“The way we are doing it is not helping”

Since 2018, the 57-year-old environmentalist has held the reins of the city known worldwide for its coffeeshops and its commercial and tourist excitement.

Behind the scenes, she relates, is a bloody and powerful world that generates billions of euros each year, disrupting the economy and threatening the future of the capital’s vulnerable youth.

“I also think that some drugs are dangerous and that it is wise to reduce their use. » But “the way we are proceeding does not help (…) we will have to think about the best ways to regulate drugs”, according to the councilor who believes that putting MDMA on the market should even be considered.

In Amsterdam, the hub of the drug economy, 80% of police activities are devoted to combating drug-related crime, she points out.

Moral debate

She describes the consequences of drug trafficking as “disastrous” in her city, where the consumption of hard drugs is also, like other European capitals, increasingly commonplace.

“Street prices for cocaine have stayed exactly the same, so we have no effect,” she says. “So isn’t it ridiculous that we leave drug trafficking to criminals and don’t try to find a civilized market model? »

This position is criticized, in particular by the mayor of Antwerp Bart de Wever, “a big supporter of the war on drugs”, relates Femke Halsema. The Belgian port city has in recent years become the main gateway for cocaine into Europe.

Authorities at another major crossing, Rotterdam, are targeting another link in the chain and last year launched a campaign targeting users, insisting that each “line” or “pill” supports criminal networks.

“An economic or more pragmatic discussion”

“Are consumers criminals? I don’t think so,” and criminalizing them has not had the expected effects across the Atlantic, where prisons are overcrowded and the effects on health are still disastrous, according to her.

In the Netherlands, as in many countries, the debate is “emotional and moral.” ‘Drugs spoil your health, drugs are bad, it is immoral to use them,’” she sums up. “And there is rarely an economic or more pragmatic or financial discussion about this.”

While the “conservative” national government “does not want to talk about it”, Femke Halsema has opened an international discussion.

She invited officials from around the world in late January to discuss “how, not if” cities should regulate drugs.