Drug tourism
Drug tourism refers to the special form of border tourism in which the procurement or consumption of narcotics in another country is in the foreground.
background
Drug tourism is mostly caused by different drug laws in different countries. So z. For example, the sale of hashish and marijuana is tolerated by the police in the Netherlands under certain conditions in legal coffee shops, but not in other countries such as Germany or France . According to the Narcotics Act , the import of drugs into Germany is prohibited.
Effects
Since coffee shops close to the border in the Netherlands are a magnet for numerous consumers from neighboring countries, drug tourism is often unmistakable and is perceived as a nuisance by residents of the Dutch villages in the border regions. Police checks are therefore often a reaction to complaints from residents.
Countermeasures
The police authorities work closely together internationally; The detection rate is to be increased through random checks by the police and customs in the border area and hinterland. On the cross-border motorways in particular, the density of checks is very high, including with civil vehicles.
There are fears that the abolition of compulsory border controls under the Schengen Agreement has made drug smuggling easier. The quantities of illegal drugs seized have remained more or less constant compared to the pre-Schengen period, but have increased in the case of ecstasy. The number of illegal drugs found has decreased slightly. It is not known whether the number of drug smugglers has increased ( unreported number ).
extent
The Netherlands is the dominant country of origin of the drugs seized in Germany, especially cannabis (81% of hashish seized , 75% of marijuana ) and 80% of ecstasy . Other drugs ( heroin , LSD, etc.) are also mainly imported via the Netherlands.
National drug tourism
To limit the side effects of heroin addicts, the introduction of drug consumption rooms is possible in which the consumption of heroin and other hard drugs is tolerated through intravenous injection, smoking and sniffing, in order to enable drug addicts to consume while maintaining hygienic standards. On the one hand, pressure rooms have the task of supplying addicts with clean syringes to prevent infection with HIV , hepatitis and other infectious diseases , but also of preventing open drug use on the street. Since the pressure rooms in a city are often all located in a fixed quarter, the location at which the hard drug scene is established can also be influenced in this way. Since, despite this possibility, not all large cities tolerate pressure rooms in the form of social institutions, this has led to drug addicts from distant regions commuting regularly to cities in which a large drug scene has polarized due to an available drug help system. For example, the city of Frankfurt am Main is a magnet for drug addicts from large parts of southern and western Germany. The proximity of the tough drug scene to Frankfurt Central Station favors this effect.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Drug Report of the Federal Government 2001