“Drugs Paradise”:: Dutch Stereotypes and Substance Regulation in European Collaborations on Drug Policies in the 1970s

The Dutch approach toward the consumption and trade of drugs has yielded the country a stereotypical image of a too liberal nation. But how did this image develop and to what extent has it influenced Dutch on drug policies? This article goes back to the 1970s to analyze these questions in the context of the first European collaboration around drug policies, with the creation of the Pompidou Group—Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs. The analysis draws on archival data and literature. Results show that the emergence of the Dutch stereotype of a “drugs paradi... Mehr ...