From what I heard, the change led to treating drug usage as health problem, and removing the law enforcement aspect from the loop. The police can still refer dr

From what I heard, the change led to treating drug usage as health problem, and removing the law enforcement aspect from the loop. The police can still refer drug users to the healthcare institutions that deal with the problem. Another interesting tidbit is that the Netherlands did not in fact legalized cannabis. They just decline to prosecute that crime. There's no legal framework to regulate its sale, like for any other consumable good. This leads to silliness like people in "coffee shops" being allowed to smoke weed, but not tobacco since that is regulated for all indoors venues.