Drug smuggler nation

In the twentieth century the Netherlands grew into a major country of trade and production for illegal drugs, supplying the UK and other European countries as well as North America. Using examples from the rich Dutch history of drug smuggling, this book synthesizes historical and criminological case studies and journalistic investigations in order to understand the deeper and hidden grounds of the illegal drug trade. It questions the reasons for the failure of drug polices to control the illegal market, despite increasing regulation and law enforcement. Smuggling narcotics and the Netherlands, 1920–95 shows how the international drug regulatory regime combined with the increasing public demand for illegal drugs led to the proliferation of a ‘hydra’ of small, anarchic groups and networks. ‘Criminal anarchy’ supplying illegal drug demand became the unintended consequence of the drug regulatory regime.