Yes of course... but it still (used to?) mostly transit through Spain, where it then is passed into France etc. Heavy drugs coming from south america do also transit through Spain.

I found back the article (in english) I read earlier this year on the subject:

https://english.elpais.com/spanish_news/2021-02-03/spain-and...

The EU and perhaps NL in particular should really take another look at legalizing at least hash.

It would help to also legalize cocaine, but even Colombia that would benefit most from it, is still not ready to do something to break the status quo.

https://transformdrugs.org/blog/historic-win-for-coca-cocain...

I'm all in for cocaine legalisation, but how do you make it safe? So much heart problems and overdoses that it's obviously would cause so much unnecessary deaths.

Most issues are caused by concommittant alcohol use, since it makes cocaine metabolize into cocaethylene (ethylcocaine), which is both more addictive and much worse for the heart.

Quoth Wikipedia: Some studies suggest that consuming alcohol in combination with cocaine may be more cardiotoxic than cocaine and "it also carries an 18 to 25 fold increase over cocaine alone in risk of immediate death".

Interesting. That’s pretty much most popular combination.

People die from cocaine even now when it's illegal. The question is if harm would increase due to legalisation. I think there is a good argument that harm could actually be reduced since quality and dose control would be much better. Treatment is also easier when those with substance use disorder are not seen as criminals.

Maybe if you sold in fairly limited doses in pharmacy by prescription at which point it would loose fun and create another market for aggregators/resellers. It's not like weed where it's impossible to OD (tho it can be very stressful).

People generally don't want to overdose. ODs happen when people are mistaken about the quality and purity of the product they get hold of. Legalisation would reduce the risks significantly.

Many Colombian people would agree to do this, many will look at you in bewilderment. The main issue is that too many people in government institutions are profiting from the status quo. Colombia itself has a rather massive drug use problem, or, the people of the younger generation are pretty open minded about consumption.

Yes the corruption makes it difficult to do much, but the War on Drugs has been going on for more than 50 years.

It's quite obvious that another 50 years will not do any difference, but the proposed bill just might.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_drugs

Like most wars it makes the powers that be very rich I guess

That's exactly why they want to keep the status-quo.

Any country that legalizes cocaine will get on the US sanctions shit list which would cost the Netherlands hundreds of billions per year. Also there would be massive drug tourism.