'Holland Drugsland': we pioneer, tolerate, help… and we produce and trade

How a country became big in the world of drugs, the world of narcotics. Should you be proud of that and talk about it extensively on television? It's just the way it is, so Metro watched Holland Drugsland , a four-part series by Andere Tijden (NTR).

We saw something a bit against the norm in the second episode of the TV program Blik op de Buis , about heroin. Last week the 'investigative documentary' was about weed, the next two episodes about cocaine and ecstasy. Historically speaking, the episode about heroin is the most interesting, because drugs immediately stood for misery. Deep misery. This also made the biggest impression on the creator of the series Ajouad El Miloudi, as he indicated in advance. His episode is therefore called Heroin Hell .

“I visited a branch of the GGD behind the police cell complex in Amsterdam Zuidoost,” says El Miloudi. “There, heroin addicts can use medically produced heroin under supervision. I was impressed by the way in which care workers there treat people – with so much respect and involvement.”

After more than sixty years of drugs in the Netherlands – in addition to all the addiction clinics at home and abroad – it is still necessary. In the sixties it started with free spirits who came to the Netherlands, looking for pleasure. That still sounds a bit festive, being in the clouds with a big weed joint 'in your flower power -gaffel'. The rise of real drugs, the heroin of the eighties, changed a lot. Including a sad street scene, full of homeless people and the dealers who supplied them with drugs.

Some fortunately got out, like ex-user Mohamed Bakayan. He is now a field worker in Amsterdam who keeps an eye on the current addicts as best he can. Good guy. He talks to addict Guno about the hard times of the past and "the good dope that was there then".

Ajouad El Miloudi visits the aforementioned GGD branch. Heroin users, if they have been addicted for years and have tried to quit several times, get their drugs there on prescription. "The users from the very beginning," says Christelle van der Meer, psychiatrist at GGD Amsterdam. "Drugs are smoked here," she says during a tour. Pointing to another room, as if it were a room for shuffleboard and checkers: "They inject there." "How do you get that heroin?" El Miloudi wants to know. Van der Meer: "You'd like to know, wouldn't you? A lot of people want to know."

Flashes that you see in Holland Drugsland about those turbulent eighties give a good picture of the time, but are not pretty. They are mainly sad. Ex-user and former dealer Willy Ringringoeloe talks about it openly. "I had to kick the habit, because I could hardly walk anymore." She stopped dealing drugs from one moment to the next - "with Jesus" - and using a lot herself. "I was already living in hell, I didn't want to go to the other hell." Willy asked her seven children for forgiveness and received it.

Her story alone says everything about how terrible a total addiction to drugs can be (although recreational use is not a good idea either, Metro wrote earlier). That is why tolerating it, providing addicts with help – especially with a doctor's prescription – is a much better idea. But yes, the Netherlands is not only our pioneering spirit, but also an important transit country for drugs (especially cocaine) and a global leader in the production of ecstasy. It only encourages drug use and we cannot be proud of that. Looking at Holland Drugsland , talking about it is a better idea than keeping quiet. Who knows, there may still be some people who think: 'Those drugs, I shouldn't have done that.'

Holland Drugsland can be seen on Wednesday evenings at 22:20 on NTR on NPO 2. You can watch it again via NPO Start .