Why Regulation Is Necessary
Prohibition has failed. Not due to lack of will or resources – but due to its own logic.
The Health Failure
In illegal markets, there is no quality control. Users don't know what they're taking – dosage is unknown, contamination is common. Fentanyl contamination has caused an epidemic in the US and is now reaching Europe. People don't die from drugs – they die from illegality.
Evidence shows the opposite: Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 – use didn't increase, and among youth it actually decreased. The Netherlands has lower cannabis use rates than Germany despite coffeeshops.
Sources: EUDA Portugal, EUDA Netherlands, EUDA Germany
The Reality of the Black Market
- Fentanyl Crisis: Synthetic opioids are increasingly being mixed into other substances – without users' knowledge.
- Adulterants: From synthetic cannabinoids to toxic additives – the illegal market has no quality control.
- Dosage Uncertainty: Every batch can have different potency. What was safe yesterday can be lethal today.
Homelessness and rotting wounds are not inevitable.
In many European cities, necrotic wounds come from contaminated street drugs and infected injection sites. Cutting agents like lidocaine or levamisole destroy vessels and tissue.
People with alcohol dependence consume a regulated, taxed product. Even when homeless they buy legal substances without unknown additives — they do not die from adulterants, do not lose limbs to contaminated poison, and still contribute to the commons through taxes.
Regulation means: pure substances instead of street poison, medical oversight instead of necrosis, revenue instead of downstream costs.
Social Benefits of Regulation
Regulation means: tax revenue instead of cartel profits, professional counseling instead of anonymous street dealing, preventive healthcare instead of emergency medicine.
Today: Black Market
€31+ Mrd.
annually to cartels in the EU
With Regulation
Tax Revenue
for prevention, therapy, education
Source: EUDA/Europol EU Drug Markets Report – estimated annual revenue of the illegal EU drug market.
The Problem Today: Alcohol and Tobacco Next to Bread
Even for legal drugs our system fails: highly toxic alcohol and tobacco are sold in supermarkets next to bread. No entrance age filter, no mandatory counselling, cheap bulk offers. Serious regulation would move these products into specialised outlets with age checks and advice – exactly what we propose for all substances.
People with addiction problems hide out of fear of social ostracism. They seek help only when it's almost too late – or not at all. In a regulated system, they could openly seek support before the spiral begins – from professionals, not on the street.
Rejection and prohibition are not the same. We socially reject smoking – yet tobacco is legal and regulated. The result: smoking rates have been declining for decades. Honest education and health policy work better than bans.
The Global Failure
Every euro spent on illegal drugs funds organized crime. Cartels control production regions, corrupt governments, murder for market share. European consumption funds violence in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
The Chain of Responsibility
No demand, no supply. Europe is one of the largest markets for illegal drugs worldwide. We share responsibility for the consequences of our consumption.
Why Enforcement Alone Fails
You cannot fight cartels while funding them. As long as prohibition keeps prices artificially high, profit margins are so extreme that any risk is worth taking. Seizures are priced in. Arrests are replaced. Demand remains constant.
"You cannot fight cartels while funding them."
The Prohibition Paradox
- High Prices: Prohibition keeps prices artificially high – extreme profit margins
- Risk Priced In: Seizures and arrests are calculated business costs
- Constant Demand: 50 years of drug war haven't reduced consumption
- Violence Guaranteed: Illegal markets are regulated with guns instead of lawyers
True. But we choose which markets to leave to them. When the US ended alcohol prohibition, Al Capone's empire collapsed. Not because crime disappeared – but because the most lucrative market became legal. The same pattern is possible.
Why the Debate Never Discusses Regulation
In every documentary about drug crime, we hear: "There is no solution." Never is even half a sentence spent considering that real regulation could disempower the cartels.
The Netherlands Example
Despite coffeeshop tolerance, drug gangs are extremely powerful, infiltrate the state, and murder civilians like lawyers and journalists. The reason: The supply chain remains illegal. Coffeeshops sell legally, but production and wholesale are in criminal hands.
A Half-System Keeps Cartels Alive
Dutch "tolerance" is not regulation – it is a half-system. As long as production and wholesale remain illegal, cartels remain in business. The money keeps flowing to organized crime.
Real Regulation Means:
- Legal production under state control
- Legal wholesale with quality control
- Legal sales in pharmacies or licensed shops
- Cartels lose the entire market – not just retail sales
Only when the entire supply chain is legal and controlled can we actually disempower organized crime.
Germany's Partial Legalization – Why Not More?
Germany isn't "half-hearted" – it's legally and politically trapped between EU law, UN treaties, domestic politics, the Bundesrat, and police lobbies.
What was actually legalized in 2024?
Allowed: Possession of small amounts, home cultivation, distribution through non-commercial growing clubs
Not Allowed
NOT allowed: Free sale in shops, normal market, regular taxed sales like alcohol
Germany is bound by EU drug framework decisions and the 1961 UN Single Convention. Commercial sales would clearly violate treaties and immediately trigger lawsuits and infringement proceedings.
The club model is formally considered "non-commercial" and remains in a legal gray zone – harder to challenge under EU law.
Who opposed it most strongly?
- Police Unions: Police unions: Arguments like "more traffic deaths," "loss of control." Real motive: Loss of prosecutorial power, elimination of millions of investigations.
- Conservative Parties: CDU/CSU and conservative state governments: Arguments like "gateway drug," "societal decay." Real motive: Culture war, "law & order" positioning.
- Bundesrat: The Bundesrat repeatedly tried to massively block or water down the law.
Conclusion: The current model is a political compromise, not an end state – a test balloon and transitional law.
The Legal Path to an EU-Wide Pharmacy Market
A genuine EU-wide pharmacy market for all drugs is legally possible, manageable under international law, and economically highly profitable for states.
The Three Legal Barriers Today
1. UN
UN Drug Conventions: The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs prohibits commercial sale of almost all drugs.
2. EU
EU Law: Framework decisions on drug law, internal market law, pharmaceutical law.
3. National
National Law: Narcotics acts, criminal codes, pharmacy laws.
Phase 1: EU-Wide Policy Decision
The EU decides: "Drug policy is primarily health and market regulation, not security policy." Then Article 114 TFEU (internal market) applies instead of criminal law.
Phase 2: EU Directive for Controlled Substances
The EU issues a binding framework directive: Sales only in pharmacies, EU-wide advertising ban, pharmaceutical purity, age limits, uniform warning labels.
Phase 3: Reinterpret UN Law
Option A: Joint treaty reservation – EU states declare a health-oriented interpretation of UN conventions (as Canada and Uruguay already practice).
Option B: Formal treaty amendment – EU states force a UN revision conference (slow but permanent).
Phase 4: National Implementation
Each country repeals narcotics and criminal laws, replacing prohibition with pharmacy requirements, state licensing, price regulation, tax collection, and mandatory counseling.
Sales only in pharmacies or state-licensed facilities. No advertising. Uniform EU product standards with active ingredient amounts in milligrams. Quantity limits and graduated pricing. Subsidies for severely addicted individuals.
Why this is more justifiable than prohibition
A regulated pharmacy market means: fewer deaths, fewer infections, less violence, less environmental destruction, less organized crime. This is constitutionally viable through proportionality and the state's duty of protection.
Who must act first?
At least two major EU economies (e.g., Germany + France), a clear position from the European Commission, and a standstill agreement with the USA, which historically controls the UN drug apparatus.
The Sober Truth
Legally, the path is open. Politically, it's risky. It requires an open break with parts of the old UN drug order – but that's not an obstacle, it's a decision.
Regulation is not a utopia.
It is a shift from chaos to systems.
The world after is:
You can no longer pretend that none of this "concerns us".
Ready to Take Action?
Contact your political representatives and advocate for evidence-based drug policy.
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