The Netherlands Drug Situation 2010 - Trimbos-instituut

Relatively small fractions are dismissed for policy or technical reasons, The percentageof dismissals for policy reasons was high in 2004 because many cases were dismissedas a policy in cases of hard drug trafficking at Schiphol Airport by drug couriers.Non-prosecution was a policy decision and part of the temporary drug orientedapproach of drug couriers at Schiphol. Since 2007, all of these types of cases areprosecuted again.The other cases ended with joinder of charges, were dismissed for administrative reasonsor transferred to another court (last two types not in table).Table 9.1.4: Decisions by the Public Prosecution in Opium Act cases (2002-2009) I2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Submitted to court 70% 72% 61% 65% 66% 66% 62% 63%Transaction 19% 18% 20% 19% 21% 22% 24% 23%Case dismissal forpolicy reasons3% 3% 10% 8% 6% 5% 6% 6%Case dismissal fortechnical reasons5% 5% 7% 6% 5% 5% 6% 7%Joinder of charges 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2%I. Due to changes in information systems and underlying databases, the for data 2009 have a preliminary character.Source: OMDATA, WODC, 2010.Court sentences for Opium Act offences (table 9.1.5)The general trend in court sentences in Opium Act cases is – again - one of a decliningnumber of cases, a decrease in the proportion of hard drug cases and an increase in thatof soft drug cases, according to the preliminary data. This trend is the same like the oneat the Police and the Public Prosecutor. In 2009, the court handled more than 10 thousand Opium Act cases. Most of the court cases concern hard drugs, but there is a considerable fraction ofsoft drugs. The percentage of Opium Act cases of the total number of cases handled by the courtdecreased, namely to 7,6%. In 2008 this was 8.2%. This means that also in a relativesense, there is a decline of Opium Act cases.Table 9.1.5: Number of court sentences for Opium Act cases by drug type, 2002-2009 I,II2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Type of drug:- Hard drugs 66% 65% 58% 52% 50% 51% 51% 49%- Soft drugs 31% 31% 38% 44% 45% 45% 45% 47%- Hard- and softdrugs 3% 3% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4%- Other/unknown 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%Opium Act cases 10,699 12,713 12,145 12,190 13,011 11,815 11,430 10,566% drug related of8,3% 8,6% 8,3% 8,4% 8,9%total number of cases8,5% 8,2% 7,6%I. There can be more than one case per person. II. Due to changes in information systems and underlying databases,the data for 2009 have a preliminary character. Source: OMDATA, WODC, 2010.Data on the specific type of sanctions are only available until 2008. There are no reliable2009 data available yet.125