Cannabis Users in Amsterdam

In this presentation I will say something about users of cannabis –that is to say hash and marijuana – principally in Amsterdam. The emphasis is on Amsterdam, not because I find users here more important than elsewhere, but beacuse the data on these users is relatively ample. In 1987, 1990, and 1994 we asked large samples of the population of persons 12 years and older (roughly 4,400 people) about lifestyle and use of legal and illegal drugs. Therefore we can say with some confidence something about the development of cannabis use and about users’ characteristics. This confidence exists because each year we choose not only the same technique of sample selection, but also because we continued to work with the same interview instrument. Here I will primarily address the question of the consequences the past years ’ drug policy of ‘tolerance ’ has had regarding the spread and intensity of cannabis use. Can we say that there are continually more people who have had experience with cannabis? Or does the availability in Amsterdam lead instead to a slow decrease in its importance? Or can we speak of a certain stability