The Netherlands being called a “narco state” by some elements, while in essence has a core of truth in it, comes more from the lack of punishment on hard crime, not the tolerance of soft-drugs (harddrugs are still considered highly illegal and criminal to traffic afaik).
The Netherlands has closed many a prison in recent years, not because there was no crime but no properly paid staff to fill them. And a lot of the criminals that do end up in prison get, in the public’s view, extremely lenient sentences or just house arrest with an ankle bracelet.
Even high profile criminals who shot political candidates (for prime minister?) or very public figures, were given a short prison stay and then house arrest with privileges as long as they played nice.
Also, from what I heard, a lot of the narco-criminals that do get caught are often not of Dutch origin and for some reason that is considered to give a lot more trouble on giving them a hard sentence. The bigger boys will get extradited to their country of origin with no real continuous followup if they’re still fulfilling a prison sentence.
And for example drug-runner teenagers, who break into shipping containers in the large ports grab the goods and try to get it to their bosses, are often barely punished.
It just seems The Netherlands punishes crime from the view of the person, (ie. you’ll be locked up for 5 years of your coming ~55 years of life) not on what society deems appropriate for the crime committed.
The Netherlands being called a “narco state” by some elements, while in essence has a core of truth in it, comes more from the lack of punishment on hard crime, not the tolerance of soft-drugs (harddrugs are still considered highly illegal and criminal to traffic afaik).
The Netherlands has closed many a prison in recent years, not because there was no crime but no properly paid staff to fill them. And a lot of the criminals that do end up in prison get, in the public’s view, extremely lenient sentences or just house arrest with an ankle bracelet.
Even high profile criminals who shot political candidates (for prime minister?) or very public figures, were given a short prison stay and then house arrest with privileges as long as they played nice.
Also, from what I heard, a lot of the narco-criminals that do get caught are often not of Dutch origin and for some reason that is considered to give a lot more trouble on giving them a hard sentence. The bigger boys will get extradited to their country of origin with no real continuous followup if they’re still fulfilling a prison sentence.
And for example drug-runner teenagers, who break into shipping containers in the large ports grab the goods and try to get it to their bosses, are often barely punished.
It just seems The Netherlands punishes crime from the view of the person, (ie. you’ll be locked up for 5 years of your coming ~55 years of life) not on what society deems appropriate for the crime committed.