Hello readers of TwentiesLife! Stefan here, from StudySuccessful.com. I am Dutch. No I am not from Amsterdam, I’m from another place in the Netherlands, you probably only know Amsterdam because of the Red Light District and smoking marijuana.. I don’t blame you, we have some crazy rules here in our little country, but you know what, I am standing behind them, all of them.
Dutch rules on taboo topics
In The Netherlands a lot of things are legal which are illegal in almost every other country in the world, why is that? Are we just a bunch of pot-smoking douchebags who like to go to the red light district? Or are we one of the most progressive state in the world? I think the last one. I will discuss several topics, which are legal here and illegal over there (which is around every other country in the world). This will be: smoking weed, prostitution and abortion. Quick note: I am an atheist, I think you should know that. Put your clog on, check if the windmill is still turning and get a piece of cheese, you are about to experience Dutch knowledge.
Smoking weed
What is America doing at this point, marijuana is illegal (except the ‘medical use‘) and there is a big ‘War on drugs’ thing going on. But how is it possible that I still see a lot of green sticks at a tv show like Entourage? How is it possible that if there is put in that much money, the drug use still didn’t stop or even decrease? And why is it still one of the biggest problems America face? I believe that is because prohibition is never an answer. In the early 1920′s they’ve tried the same thing with booze and the mafia has grown big because of the bootlegging. Drug mafia is nowadays one of the richest crime sectors in the world and that is because everything is illegal. Prohibition does not takes away the curiosity of experiencing something like smoking weed, nor it is taking away the need. It is only a way to force people to sneak around to smoke something, instead of buying it at a place where you can actually control it.
If somebody who has never been on the earth before is coming to the earth and he has to divide the different ‘drugs’ that exist into ‘hard drugs’ and ‘soft drugs’ (as we know it nowadays), alcohol will definitely be on the hard drug side. But that is legal and something which is not even that bad for you (weed) is illegal.
So here we got my point. I think that if you are legalizing something like soft drugs, you are getting control of it. By legalizing it, there isn’t a big underground scene which is providing marijuana, no street sellers who sell their stuff to young kids. We have ‘coffee shops‘ where you can buy what you want, a place which is controlled in the end by the government, where there is control of the customer, of the addicted. The stuff they are selling is of good quality, no crap added, so stuff that is not that bad for you.
Controlling is better than a big expensive offensive, in my eyes at least. Of course, we (the Dutch) are also against hard drugs, as they are really, really bad for you. But fighting something which you can never win, is probably not a good idea, especially when the need isn’t that big. If you can control the use and the quality of marijuana, it is better to legalize.
Prostitution
This taboo is a tough one. You will never see scenes where women in really short skirts are on the side of the road looking for potential customers in the Netherlands. Over here, prostitution is actually legal. There are houses where you can go for your needs. A good thing? I think so.
Here is the same with the legalization of soft drugs. This is a problem which can cause a lot of trouble and it is hard to prevent these kind of crimes. But now it is about people. If prostitution is illegal, there is a lot of underground work. There will be a need of big organization who will control where is who. There will be different levels of pimps, controlling women who are paid for sex. And that can’t be a good thing, fur-wearing men who are controlling women who have to have sex, right? That is why it is legalized in the Netherlands. I have to be honest here, there are problems every once in a while. Sometimes it turns out that there are under-aged girls who are put out there, but at least we have an idea about the size of the problem. We know what is going on, where. If something isn’t right, the human rights are coming in, houses will be closed and the government will take care of the girls. Ban the oldest profession in the world will be impossible, controlling it won’t.
Abortion
Abortion means ending the life of an unborn child. Ending your pregnancy before it should end. And yes, this is legal in the Netherlands.
There are a lot of rules about this though. You can’t just go to the doctor to get it removed without consultations and time to think. Women who go to the doctor with this request will be forced to think about it.
Why I think this should be illegal is not the everyday arguments you hear all the time. Not about ‘what if it is a rape’ or ‘what if the girl is way too young?’ I think we shouldn’t think about the mom, God or anybody, but we should think about the baby. What is best for the unborn child? What is happening here is a problem of timing. It is not the time for the baby to be there yet. If the mother doesn’t want the baby, if she is not ready, if the father is a rapist who impregnated the mother, this is just not the time for the baby to be there. Selfish? No, not at all. Because if abortion wouldn’t be possible, if the baby will come anyway, there will be nothing but problems. The mother will love the baby anyway, for sure. But what are the future plans? If this woman just could have finished her major, if she is with a father which makes her happy, the future chances of the baby are way bigger than ever before. The baby will have everything he needs, including a loving mother and a loving father. Without abortion? He also has a chance of a good life, but I think a slighter chance.
Is abortion murder? Am I able to just murder an unborn child in order to greater his chance of a good life? No. I don’t think it is murder as the fetus isn’t viable yet. It doesn’t have a mind yet, it isn’t a human being yet.
Concluding thoughts
Well, these opinions are mine. These opinions are shared by a great part of the Dutch population, we think that taboo topics aren’t topics we should forget. These topics are important and while we have these rules, there is a lot of talking about these rules. Are these rules the right ones? Shouldn’t we change the rules? The answer is always no. This country is a country of possibilities, of freedom to choose. What do you think about the Dutch rules? Are we insane? Are we out of our mind? Or are we actually progressive in a way a lot of countries will follow, eventually? Let me know in the comments!
This is a guest post by the Dutch Stefan Knapen who runs the blog StudySuccessful.com, a blog full of study hacks and personal development tips.
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