Belgian Drug Policy

The criminalisation of drugs appears to be an artificial construct that reflects the logic of interests entirely separated from social realities. Under the influence of external factors, the process of the criminalisation of drugs plainly preceded the existence of a problem related to their consumption. Until the late 19th century, the consumption of drugs does not appear to have been a problem for Belgian society. The ratification of the International Opium Convention of 1912 resulted in a Belgian counterpart, the 24 February 1921 Act regarding the trafficking of poisonous, narcotic, disinfectant or antiseptic substances. Despite Belgium having enacted an impressive repressive arsenal, it was sparingly used by police and judicial authorities. The rise in drug consumption, associated with the rise of a protest counter-culture in Europe, stimulated the interest of the political class in a practice that emerged as the distinctive trait of a certain social marginality