The Soft Drugs Debate in The Netherlands: A Qualitative System Dynamics Analysis

摘要

The Dutch Soft Drugs policy is currently under attack from all sides. Based on the opinions regarding the future Dutch soft drugs policy, the Dutch population and political arena could be divided into different groups: those in favour of full legalization, those in favour of more (but different types of) regulation, and those in favour of a full ban. The paper focusses on the points of view of those in favour of more regulation, since a full legalization or a full ban on soft drugs are unrealistic in the Dutch context. However, the group in favour of more regulation is also strongly divided into those in favour of more restrictive policies (compared to current policies) and those in favour of more tolerant policies (compared to current policies). The points of view of these two groups are analyzed in this paper using a qualitative System Dynamics perspective.