Newsgroups: soc.culture.singapore,soc.culture.netherlands,alt.drugs
From: [ral p h] at [inter.NL.net] (Ralph)
Subject: Statistics on drug use Singapore vs. Netherlands
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 10:15:00 GMT
[k--ip--r] at [fysik.uu.se] (Pieter Kuiper) writes:
>In article <[LAWP 4014 94 Oct 3173023] at [solar.leonis.nus.sg]>,
>[lawp 4014] at [solar.leonis.nus.sg] (Terence Chua) wrote:
>[after introduction of the death penalty for drug trafficking]
>> The drop was from 11 traffickers arrested in 1976 to 1 in 1979. And the
>> heroin addict population dropped from 13,000 in 1977 to 6,200 in 1984.
>That is still a high number. Does anybody have estimates available on how
>many heroin addicts there are in the Netherlands?
This is from the official policy on drugs of the Netherlands governement.
Note that the Netherlands has just over 15 million inhabitants, singapore
3.5 million. There are 21.000 addicts in the netherlands, that is 1 per
710, and that includes registered addicts and an assessment on the
non-registered addicts. In Singapore, there are 8000 addicts, which is 1
in 430. And this includes only the registered addicts. The amount of
addicts in Singapore has risen by 35% in 3 years time, since the death
penalty for trafficking was installed. The figures for the netherlands
are included below. The source for the Singapore figures is the Singapore
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
1.2 DRUG MISUSE
The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries of Europe, with
15 million inhabitants. Appr. 90% lives in urban areas. Amsterdam has 700,000
inhabitants.
_-_Estimate_of_total_number_of_drug_misusers/addicts_
- Netherlands: 21,000 addicts.
Sources: 1) assessments of municipalities; 2) recent research on all
methadone programmes in the Netheriands (Bureau Driessen, 1990; 1993).
- Amsterdam: 6,000 - 7,000 addicts.
Prevalence of drug use in 1990 (population of 12 years and over in Amsterdam)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever used Used past year Used past month
drug n % n % n % N
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobacco 3010 67.7 2066 46.5 1899 42.7 4444
Alcohol 3820 86.0 3459 77.8 3073 69.1 4444
Hypnotics 847 19.1 420 9.5 289 6.5 4442
Sedatives 912 20.5 417 9.4 272 6.1 4439
Cannabis 1111 25.0 438 9.9 268 6.0 4442
Cocaine 245 5.5 57 1.3 17 0.4 4440
Amphetamines 183 4.1 20 0.5 10 0.2 4440
Ecstasy 56 1.3 30 0.7 5 0.1 4442
Hallucinogens 182 4.1 13 0.3 3 0.1 4430
Inhalants 42 0.9 6 0.1 2 0.0 4430
Opiates 325 7.3 86 1.9 28 0.6 4425
Pharm. opiates 295 6.7 83 1.9 28 0.6 4425
Heroin 48 1.0 5 0.1 1 0.0 4425
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope this clears some myths up....
--Ralph