Does Holland’s relatively tolerant attitude towards cannabis – exemplified by “coffee shops”, where cannabis can be bought and smoked legally – mean that Dutch youngsters are more likely to use it, and then more likely to move on to something stronger? The answer appears to be no.
According to a survey less than a year ago by the EU drugs monitoring centre, Dutch young people lag well behind many of their European neighbours when it comes to smoking marijuana. The findings surprised everyone – except the Dutch.
Broadly, the survey found that 11.4 per cent of young people aged between 15 and 24 had used cannabis the previous year, down from 14.3 per cent eight years earlier. Some 5.4 per cent of people aged between 15 and 65 used it once a year which was much lower than either Spain or Italy, for instance, at 11.2 per cent, or Canada at 17 per cent.
Source: Peter Cluskey, The Irish Times, 13/10/2010
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