International

The government must take back control of drugs policy in Europe. This proposal from SP Member of Parliament Krista van Velzen today received the support of a majority in parliament. “The EU has surreptitiously taken a degree of control over our drugs policy," says Van Velzen. "We were recently forced to ban a substance unknown in the Netherlands because 'Europe says we must'. That is of course unacceptable. The Netherlands controls such matters for itself. I'm delighted that a majority in parliament agrees with me on this.”

In the debate on the ban on the substance ‘benzylpiperazine’, it became clear that there was absolutely no argument for a ban other than that it had been ordered by the European Union. On the basis of EU rules laid down some years ago, the member states have just now for the first time been obliged to ban certain drugs. "I want to prevent a situation in which the EU can in the future force member states to ban specific drugs," says Van Velzen. "The Netherlands must decide for itself how dangerous a particular substance is, what the risks are and what would be an effective policy. This is simply a national affair in which Europe must not interfere."