Legal pot = less crime. Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals
 

For years conservatives have claimed ? falsely ? that the tolerant cannabis 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 justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.

Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak announced on Tuesday that eight prisons will be closed, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Natural redundancy and other measures should prevent any forced lay-offs, the minister said.

The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry's research department expects to continue for some time.

http://www.nrc.nl/international/arti...k_of_criminals

Pot isn't legal in the netherlands, it's only widely tolerated. It's also widely tolerated & used in Jamaica, and that's one of the most violent places in the world.

I don't think the closure of those prisons relates to pot in any way, but it's good to see that they're doing well for themselves.

Ok, so you think maybe its because mushrooms are legal and cocaine is also tolerated there?

As far as Jamaica goes, I'm not sure its as tolerated as you think. This is directly from someone who lives in Jamaica and runs a site about Jamaica:

"You don't want to be caught with it. You are liable to be jailed. True, the police are a lot more lenient these days if you have a only a 'spliff', but I would suggest you not have them use their discretion. I guess police can't venture everywhere, every time, so you will have some room to really "light up".

And by the way, the rastas, who are advocating it to be legal, do smoke it like crazy here! but they will not do it around the lawman. The rest of us don't really mind it."

http://www.my-island-jamaica.com/mar...n_jamaica.html

locking people for using drugs is the stupidest thing anyone has ever done..

welcome to america, where millions of people are locked up, most for petty drug crimes.. fucking stupid

what?!

so when we bought it in the shop, you think it was illegal? lol

you should get out of America more...

Because white people don't use drugs.

Herp derp!

Actually I assume that the Netherlands like most of Western Europe has moderate amounts of South Asians and Africans.

Do you even know what the word "Tolerated" means?

The reasons "Drugs fuel crime" is the price of drugs. Many people have to steal to afford them.

To see the real cost of drugs in America, look at Mexico.

Many people steel for weed??
In the netherlands we make a difference between hard drugs like coke and herione and soft drugs like weed.

For soft drugs there is a "blind eye policy" where officialy illegal no action is undertaken to a person carrying less then 5 grams.

I don't see that less crime is related to legal pot.

Not weed. I said drugs.

The topic starter was talking about weed.
Stay on the topic please.
:winkwink:

1. The population of the Netherlands is like 2
2. Neither of those people is black

I see a LOT of fail in this thread.

you must be black

They shouldn't be closing them they should be selling the overcapacity to other countries.

Good thinking.

They have already done that. There's a selection of Belgian inmates temporarily being housed in Dutch prisons.

And you should stay out of this :1orglaugh

The stupid part of the law is the fact, it's illegal to buy large portions of weed as reseller at the backdoor.

And at the frontdoor it's selled like it's legal (well it's not, it's tolerated).

i think its legal to carry and use all drugs in netherlands. pot is just legal to sell and buy. also they got legal prostitution. anyways great new. first time i heard of a "lack of criminals" :P

What a load of bullshit - correlation is NOT causation.

NL is making moves to make drug tourism illegal, and close coffe-shops in border towns due to massively increased violence and crime (including shootings, etc)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/wo...ch.html?src=me

Where did you get such numbers from?

Last time I checked the population of the Netherlands is about 16 million inhabitants.

Ja
https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/nl.html

No, it's DEFINITELY just two. I was there last year. You must be smoking some crazy shit!

People steal for crack which you can get for $5. Unless drugs are gong to be given out for FREE you are going to have people stealing to support their habbit.

As far as the Netherlands. First of all they don't have a history of violence like the USA. Second they don't share a border with Mexico.

They have lowered the penalties for crime in The Netherlands. And more people have to do community services instead of going to prison. Now they want higher penalties, so the prisons will be full in a few years.

http://www.nrc.nl/international/Feat...son_population

"There is no lack of criminals in the Netherlands," says Vollaard, "Changes in the prison population, including the recent decline, are more a result of policy and sentencing changes than of the declining crime rate."

Drugs couriers

Deputy minister Albayrak could have said: the prison population is declining because judges are sending fewer people to prison. But that would have been politically unwise, says Vollaard. "Already some political parties are saying that those empty prison cells should not be closed but rather filled up with more criminals."

Fewer sentences for drugs offences account for a quarter of the overall drop in effective prison sentences. This is mostly because of a new tactic against cocaine couriers from the Caribbean. Tougher checks on flights from Curacao airport have meant that more smugglers are arrested at the point of departure rather than at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

Vollaard offers another reason for the declining prison population: the increased use of community service as an alternative for prison sentences. A change in the law in 2001 made it possible for judges - and in some cases the public prosecutor's office itself - to impose community service for offences carrying an effective prison sentence of up to six months, whereas before community service could be substituted only for fines and suspended prison sentences.

PS, 55% of the people in the prisons are not born in Holland. maybe they are mexican :)

You couldn't be more wrong

whatever dude!

Prisons and law enforcement in general is big business. It means jobs.

There have been a number of documentaries on this fact, and show plenty of counties around the country where the locals have had 'side deals' with judges and sheriffs to help fill up jails, prisons, and young detention. This is not news.

If the U.S. government was really interested in cost cutting and change, I can assure you the cost of treating some crack head is a lot less expensive then locking someone up for 1-20 years at $40,000.00 per head.
:2 cents:

More pot = more short term memory loss.

People in this thread need to look up the word "Gedoogbeleid"

Hahahahahha :thumbsup

Yeah it's unbelievable how many people think they need to pipe up while they have no clue whatsoever how we take care of things over here :1orglaugh

Fuck off. Rumours and bullshit are fine but don't come here with actual facts!!1!one :1orglaugh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_po...he_Netherlands

$5 worth the crack lasts a crackhead about 5 fucking seconds. The reason people steal for crack is that they habitually need more, lots more, continuously. Speaking of which, shouldn't you be about due in for another rock?

FTW. :2 cents::2 cents: This is the only real reason pot is illegal.

Saw on the news today that a man was fined $50 for failing to recycle a bottle that he found littered in front of his house. He just tossed it into his can at the curb.

Now this is a man who takes recycling so seriously, that he keeps a worm bin for his food and paper waste. But because cities are so good at solving and preventing all crimes, they now GO THROUGH GARBAGE so they can fine you for each occurance. $50 per. And if YOU find a plastic bottle littered on your street? Dont touch it. It could be a plant.

Better make room in the jails for this shit. Supreme court says you have no expectation of privacy when you throw something away.

Bottom line; US jails will always be full to the bursting point for some stupid shit.

Now let's be honest: would you really *want* the numbskulls that go looking through the garbage to solve your crimes? It seems to me there's a reasons they're bottlehunting rather than crimesolving :1orglaugh

And with that said, I need to roll something and smoke it

Yep: To generate money! $50 bucks a pop(bottle)!

Cinncinati has dumped money into recycling bins that have wireless ID tags or something, so they can tell how often you put out recycling and fine you accordingly. No joke.