What's so dumb about Dutch law?

[Lis]

Which one in particular??? Welcome By the way http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Idnew]

http://www.zing.com/picture/p484ab69ac6af59345377bed08785bd54/ff982e87.gif Bertjuh

Yeah since some of us know nothing of Dutch Laws, which one are you talking about?

------------------
The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you are in the bathroom

My Home Spot (http://members.tripod.com/~freeatlast_3/Doing_Whatever.htm)

Homework Help (http://www.brainmania.com/)

Hi! I think Bertjuh means both laws. I agree with him, actually. The law says you are allowed to smoke and buy marihuana in small amounts in Holland. Why is that a 'dumb law'? Surveys have shown that tolerating it doesn't mean people will start smoking it more often. And I think it is better than putting people in jail and treating them like criminals.
Same goes for the taxes prostitutes have to pay. By regulating it, prostitution has become a less 'shady' part of society!

[paulgro]

Welcome to the board! I agree on both counts.

------------------
"I have not failed. I've just found
10,000 ways that won't work."

Ferrets Place (http://pub20.ezboard.com/bferretscomputerstuff)

[Serendipity]

Absolutely. Holland chooses to acknowledge her prostitutes and drug users. There are just as many prostitutes and drug users in, say, London (more of each probably), but they don't enjoy an understanding government. Prostitution is big business and it won't go away, so why shouldn't the prostitutes pay taxes (and have the business regulated: fewer STD-related deaths that way)? Again with pot, locking folks up for posession will not stop them using, but Holland does punish PUSHERS of HARD DRUGS severely.

I don't think there's anything wrong with prostitution, so I can't think of one reason why it should be prohibited. The Dutch goverment does only have laws that really make sense (for as far as I know), so no silly laws like in many other countries. I'm Dutch, by the way.

[paulgro]

Welcome to the board! It's more a moral issue, it should be treated as the business it is. Only one state in the U.S. has legalized prostitution and that's in Navada and then not in all counties. The woman are checked in the hospital and carry a card showing the were checked and wages are taxed like everyone else.

------------------
"I have not failed. I've just found
10,000 ways that won't work."

Ferrets Place (http://pub20.ezboard.com/bferretscomputerstuff)

[Serendipity]

Welcome Tom! I'm British, and it's good to have another European on board. Hey, if we didn't have all these silly laws, then there would be no Dumb Laws website... a lot (but not all) of these laws can be safely ignored in practise. Are you sure Holland has no daft laws hanging around in there? It's an old country.

Paul, did you mean "it's not a moral issue"? Other than that, do you agree that regulation of prostitution makes more sense than prohibition?

[paulgro]

The U.S. has made it a moral issue, I believe it should be legal and treated like the business it is. By not doing this you have streetwalkers with god knows what, pimps beatting the hell out of women for a buck. Legalize it and you do away with the pimp, streetwalker and most of the STD's we have now.

------------------
"I have not failed. I've just found
10,000 ways that won't work."

Ferrets Place (http://pub20.ezboard.com/bferretscomputerstuff)

[Serendipity]

D*mn right.

[saint]

hay don't forget most of a jails while be empty

------------------
The great mass of people...will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.

[Lis]

I agree with ya Tom...I don't even find it moraly wrong as long as the customer isn't married or attached.....

[Enforcer]

I must say I think most dutch poeple replying here just feel embarresed that there's dumb dutch laws, but I must agree that neither of the laws are "dumb" perhaps from an American point of vieuw, who are known to be a tad prude.
But I suppose you could say the opposite of us

[~wildangel~]

You know, It's so AMAZING!
We turned this into a huge conversation and the guy that started this thread said no more than 6 words! Just goes to show what big mouths we all have http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/wink.gif


------------------
My poems! (http://www.writtenbyme.com/userprofile.php?name=firefly25)

My wedding and Family Pic's (http://community.webshots.com/user/_sunkist25_)

[Lis]

*grabs a tape measure* ....nope I don't think it's really all that large.....just stored energy methinks http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/wink.gif heheh

[Idnew]

Lis stop it. Put the dang tape measure up will ya? http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Prude? I resemble that. http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
(ö¿ö)Sarcasm is just one of the services we offer at DL(ô¿ô)

My Home Spot (http://members.tripod.com/~freeatlast_3/Doing_Whatever.htm) My Family (http://members.tripod.com/~freeatlast_3/MyFamily.htm)

[paulgro]

Can't let a topic go to waste! http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/wink.gif

------------------
"I have not failed. I've just found
10,000 ways that won't work."

Ferrets Place (http://pub20.ezboard.com/bferretscomputerstuff)

[Lis]

or a good tape measure *measures Id's nose* see....hours of fun http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Serendipity]

Prude? If only you knew. The US is one of the greatest cultural paradoxes ever. It never fails to amuse me, anyway. Put that tape measure away, Lis, we're having a serious conversation here. I wish folks who start a thread would come back and carry on chatting. They say they resent law's presence in the list (at least I assume that's what Bertjuh was saying) and then disappear. Most discombobulating.

I agree with Berjuh. The Dutch laws are not that dump. The situation is similar but much more weird here in Germany.
Prostitution is not illegal and prostitutes are required to pay taxes and be checked for diseases. The weird thing is the prostitute can not enforce payment legally. This leads to money before "service".
It is illegal to sell, own and use cannabis products in Germany, but police and attorny are not required to prosecute the possesion of small amounts. As a result you can freely smoke marihuana and there many people who do, even more than in the Netherlands.

[Ada_Doom]

It all sounds very sensible to me.
Regulation of prostitution can only be a good thing. I read a story in Cosmo (or possibly Marie Claire) about some poor girl who was tricked into going on the game age 14 by a pimp who then abused her on a regular basis and so on...if the industry was regulated maybe such cases would happen less often.

P.S. Welkom to all the Dutch folk!

------------------
An organisation is like a tree full of monkeys, all on different branches at different levels, some climbing up, some falling down. The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces.The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but !%!%!%!%!%!%!%!%s.

[This message has been edited by Ada_Doom (edited May 14, 2001).]

[Phreakmeister]

About the marijuana:
The last few months, there has been very good proof that it is a good law. Belgium and several cantons in Switzerland have now adopted the same law. France and Germany have made their drug laws less strict. Denmark and the U.K. are also striving for legalization. (although it still is a touchy subject in the U.K.)

[TV_Guy]

I was pretty certain that Marijuana WASNT legal in Holland, and that it was just allowed to happen. How many tourists must it bring in the country. Can anyone verify?

[ogb]

Indeed lots of Germans do drug trips to Holland (btw Phreakmeister, why does everyone say Holland? I have heard that Holland is just one part of the Netherlands, but even in the soccer matches they yell 'Holland'. One of our professors told that calling it Holland would be the same as calling Germany Bavaria).
We definitely didn't make less strict drug laws in Germany. Maybe the government wants to change it, but in September will be elections and their opponent is a very conservative Bavarian who'd know how to turn these laws into many votes for himself - so no change in the next time. I am not living that far from the Dutch border and I can tell you that the drug trips cause horrendous work for the courts over here. Btw: some of the other law students here take this possibility as well. If they get caught, they can throw their whole study away as they can't get a law license after having a police record.

[Sjax]

Originally posted by Phreakmeister:
Denmark and the U.K. are also striving for legalization.

Im afraid that our new liberal/conservative government wont legalize anything. Unfortunately...

[TV_Guy]

Isn't Holland just the old name and Netherlands the new name for the country. Or is it more complicated than that?

[Phreakmeister]

There are several names to call the country. The official name is Kingdom of The Netherlands. The only correct name of the country is The Netherlands. However, a small part of the country, also the most important part, is called Holland. It was divided into two provinces, North Holland and South Holland. North is the province of Amsterdam (which is not the capital of the province, btw). South is the province of Rotterdam and The Hague.
When people talk about the country, they mostly have only seen the west of the country. But the country is bigger than just the west.

Calling The Netherlands Holland is like calling the United Kingdom England. Holland is an important part of the country, but not the only part.

[TV_Guy]

Eh...Close enough http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

I live in the north of The Netherlands... Most people here also say Holland. Just because it's shorter and sounds better

[Phreakmeister]

Well what a coincidence. I happen to live in the north of The Netherlands too.
I always say 'The Netherlands' though. Well, except when I'm talking to Dutch people of course. Or other 'speakers of the native tongue', as it is beautifully called.
I always say 'The Netherlands', because I live in The Netherlands, not in Holland. But like Kore said, a lot of Dutch people say Holland. And although it is not seen as incorrect, officially it is. But hey, as long as we understand each other, that's what's most important, aight?

[TV_Guy]

Hmm I'm a quarter dutch.
(The topic seemed to have stalled)

[Phreakmeister]

Well, to get the convo going again:
There's another offence which we tolerate: smuggling

Last week, it turned out, that the customs service at Schiphol International Airport, the most important Dutch airport, had to let cocain smugglers go, because of a lack of prison cells. The narcotics were confiscated, but the smugglers could run freely. They would even get a receit, so that the top criminals knew that the drugs were confiscated, and not stolen. The smugglers themselves could try again next time.

Way to go.

[Enforcer]

When I first came here
like a year ago I said the same thing and the discussion had been on and off a couple of times already
so it's been done
and not all laws on this site are dumb some are just not as accepted as others

------------------
Would you please step away from the vehicle?

[Sephirstein]

If people are stupid enough to do drugs, let them...It'll eliminate the black market.

Originally posted by Sjax:
Im afraid that our new liberal/conservative government wont legalize anything. Unfortunately...

I think it's VU (the leading governmentparty, Venstre's, youthparty) that made the suggestion, so perhaps...

[Enforcer]

DOH!

------------------
Phoenixes RULE!
Come to Enforcer's pizza shack!

Respect my authority!BEEFCAKE!

[This message has been edited by Enforcer (edited March 04, 2002).]