Campaign warns against ecstasy trafficking

8 June 2004

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch government launched a campaign on Monday against ecstasy trading, moving to warn its nationals that jail sentences in foreign countries are much heavier than those imposed domestically.

The anti-ecstasy campaign will involve trams criss-crossing major cities during the next 13 weeks with signs indicating the sentences traffickers can expect abroad. The message will also be spread via community centres and street posters.

And pointing to a tram with the number 3055, Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner explained: “This is the number of days you can get in some countries for ecstasy trafficking”. Other signs warned of nine years in the US, 11 in Spain, 14 in Thailand and six in Germany.

The campaign has been given the slogan “ecstasy trafficking is severely punished” and it is hoped that the message will persuade Dutch people to stay away from the drug while holidaying abroad.

“The Netherlands continues to be the source of the vast majority of MDMA (ecstasy) seized worldwide,” the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has claimed.

More than 400 Dutch nationals are in foreign jails for drug trafficking, particularly involving ecstasy. Furthermore, the Justice Ministry also said sentences are much stronger abroad and jail conditions in some foreign countries are terrible.

“And we don’t always have agreements enabling (Dutch) detainees to serve their sentences here,” Donner told French news agency AFP.

The ministry has set up an internet website (www.xtcsmokkel.nl) to educate the public, particularly the young, about the dangers of ecstasy. MDMA or ecstasy is a hard drug and can at times be fatal.

Research has also indicated that giving the public correct information on foreign sentences and jail conditions is the best method to prevent people from opting to smuggle drugs.

Subject: Dutch news + ecstasy trade