Since the 1970s, drug use in the Netherlands has been shaped by a national policy that the Dutch characterize as "harm reduction." To other nations, however, the policy has made the Netherlands the center of European drug use and drug trafficking. The continuing clash between the Dutch perception and the perception of outsiders shows no signs of abating. Dutch officials argue that heroin use is declining, while critics contend that Dutch youth have access to every type of drug.

After the explosion of drug use in the 1960s and 1970s, the Dutch government moved away from prohibition policies. The primary goal of the new policy was to reduce the harm that drugs caused to both the individual and to society. A corollary to this approach was that the efforts to control drugs should not cause more harm than the drugs...