September 12, 2003
Dutch want to ban police officers from pot shops.
Via the
Sydney Morning Herald is
this article reporting that some police officers are getting high on the job, and that the government wants to ban them from the coffee shops that sell pot.
Apparently the sight of stoned police arresting people for being stoned is a bit too much for them to take. No word on whether they will also be banned from bars that sell alcohol. I guess it's ok for drunk police to arrest people for being drunk.
The Dutch Government is worried that too many of its police officers are getting stoned on and off duty, and is to ban them from coffee shops that sell marijuana.
The Interior Minister, Johan Remkes, fears the spectacle of spliff-wielding police - in or out of uniform - is chipping away at the force's image, and opening it to accusations of hypocrisy.
"A police officer has an exemplary role to fulfil and has to show some authority," he told the newspaper De Telegraaf.
"They could be in a difficult position if they have to stop and search people for drugs."
The country's 1500 marijuana coffee shops, where customers can buy up to five grams at a time, are tolerated by the authorities. Hard drugs are not allowed. Mr Remkes says he wants to ban police officers from frequenting coffee shops both on and off duty
It's no laughing matter though. Pot doesn't do anyone any harm of course, but the article also reports that some police officers are doing much harder drugs than that, and have even been accused of selling ecstasy and cocaine to other officers.
Witnesses described occasions when officers were so high on ecstasy that they could not even find Amsterdam's main shopping street, Kalverstraat, just two minutes from the station.
Hmmmn. No, I won't go there. It really isn't a laughing matter. Police involvement in the drug trade is common throughout the world, especially in the US. If they're not directly involved, they're taking payoffs from the dealers. It may be just a minority of officers, but the majority are at least aware of what's going on, and refuse to do anything about it. Apparently in the curious "morality" of law enforcement, drug dealing is OK, but snitching on a fellow officer isn't.
The same goes for the stockholders and other financial industry professionals who help launder the profits, the prison industry which profits from guarding the "criminals", the lawyers who reap huge fees from both defending and prosecuting, and the politicians who collect enormous donations from all of these groups.
