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City streets, hotels and coffee shops until users. Over the last couple of years there
the street dealer was arrested. This ac- has been an increase in people using the
tion was reported in a very positive way DIMS test-services, thereby showing re-
by the international media. sponsibility towards their own and the
community’s health.
Although the effects of the Dutch 2
harm reduction approach should be in- The combination of preventing harm
terpreted carefully, as differences includ- by monitoring the drug market to warn
ing cultural differences between coun- the public and raising knowledge about
tries are great, the Netherlands seems drugs without accusation or judgement,
well below average compared to other seems to have worked effectively as in-
European Union countries when look- dividuals are better equipped to make
ing at the number of users experienc- choices beneficial to their health. As the
ing problems with their use and people saying goes: ‘prevention is better than
dying from overdose. cure’.

A specific example is a Red Alert The national and local governments
warning of an ecstasy pill containing of the Netherlands increasingly under-
the dangerous substance PMMA that stand the importance and effectiveness REVIEWING THE
seemed to have resulted in zero deaths in of a preventative and harm-reduction
the Netherlands, whereas this same pill approach and the benefits of using these EFFE CTIVENESS OF
led to multiple deaths in England. monitoring programs and their connect- VICT ORIAN
ed institutes for information and advice GO VERNMENT
on realistic strategies.
INVESTMENT INT O
I am fully convinced that we will see ILLICIT DR UG
more preventative and harm reduction
strategies worldwide because of their SUPPLY REDUCTION,
proven effects on the nation’s health DEMAND REDUCTION
compared to policies focusing primarily
on law enforcement which seems to in- AND
crease the potential harms for the user HARM REDUCTION
and the community in general.
STRATE GIES AND
The gap between policies based on PR OGRAMS;
oversimplification, morality, stigmatiza-
tion, and the demand for a realistic ap-
In comparison to Australia (relative to proach will become smaller over time as
its population and excluding alcohol and knowledge increases.
tobacco):
•annually about twice the number of Drugs are never without risks. These
people die directly from a drug related risks differ according to the type of drug,
overdose in Australia compared to the the type of user and the types of use, and
Netherlands; require vastly different approaches from
•according to the latest numbers from one another. Risks can be minimized
the World Drug Report 2016, more than with realistic policies that are compati-
10 times the amount of people died in ble with these differences. The evidence
cases where drugs played a direct (i.e. is there.
overdose) or indirect role (such as traf-
fic or violence) in Australia compared to
the Netherlands; Drug
•in this same report the number of
people receiving care due to drug related
Netherlandsproblems was more than 6 times high-
er in Australia compared to the Nether-
lands. Checking

During my personal experience work-
ing for the DIMS test-service and ed-
ucating people about drugs, I received (Pill Testing)
only positive responses about the Neth-
erlands realistic approach towards drug

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