The drug problem in The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the drug problem among adolescents developed as a new phenomenon in the mid 1960s. Without remarkable success, methadone maintenance programs were introduced in 1968. Drug free treatment in therapeutic communities, developed since 1972, was successful after the first experimental years. This success provoked the illusion that drug related problems could be solved by treatment; low threshold programs, putting few demands on participants, were established to dispense methadone. The illusion was that addicts can be motivated into further treatment if they are brought into contact with professionals. As the addict population kept growing and their street crimes increased in number, Dutch drug policies changed in 1978, using methadone as a means to decrease criminal activities rather than to treat addicts. This also turned out to be an illusion. Currently, there is strong political pressure to distribute heroin to addicts to diminish the negative side effects of drug abuse. Dutch drug policies are characterized by the opinion that drug problems cannot be solved and have to be accepted.