www.drugtext.nl Drugtext, The Foundation On Drug Policy and Human Rights. This site deals with all aspects of the "drug prohibition," and has a search engine for most of the anti-prohibitionist sites. It is run by my good friend Mario Lap in the Netherlands. Mario is one of the most knowledgeable people in the anti-prohibitionist movement and is an expert on the Internet as well.

Patterns of Cannabis Use in Amsterdam Among Experienced Cannabis Users by Peter Cohen and Arjan Sas of the University of Amsterdam . "Some preliminary data from the 1995 Amsterdam Cannabis Survey." Very interesting and important. Conclusions: Sustained high level marijuana use (more than 10 grams per month) is relatively rare. Only 5.5 percent reports a high level of use during the last three months prior to the interview. But, thirty-three percent of experienced cannabis users report ever having used at a high level at some point during his or her career. 43 percent reports to have quit at time of interview. Decreasing level of use over time - when cannabis users grow older - or quitting altogether applies to more than half of all respondents. Although 45 percent of the experienced cannabis users we interviewed report having first hand knowledge of negative effects of hashish or marijuana on one or more aspects of life, this did not lead to an escalation of problems. In fact all respondents but one were able to regulate their cannabis use on their own, either by quitting or cutting down their use, or applying stricter rules to their use. Sixty-five percent of experienced cannabis users experiment with other drugs. Frequent or current other drug use is rare. Other drug use might be repeated as long as it fits into the lifestyle of the user. With decreasing levels of cannabis use, what ever other drug use has existed disappears or almost disappears.http://www.frw.uva.nl/cedro/library/cannabis/florence.html

Cannabis Use, A Stepping Stone to Other Drugs? The Case of Amsterdam. by Peter Cohen and Arjan Sas. Conclusion: (Abridged) Indeed, we found among almost 9,000 respondents out of 2 large household surveys in 1990 and 1994, that in Amsterdam cannabis use is an almost necessary condition for developing other drug use. However, most cannabis users in Amsterdam (75%) do not report other drug use. None of the stepping stone hypotheses could be confirmed although data that approached confirmation could be found for a minority of users with the highest levels of cannabis involvement. Some statistical / epidemiological evidence for a stepping stone phenomenon that associates cannabis use to some type of use of other drugs is available for a small minority of cannabis users only. Apparently, in Amsterdam where use of illicit drugs is made possible due to the hassle free (illicit) availability of that type of drug, the use of cannabis satisfies almost all curiosity. Small numbers of experienced cannabis users try other illicit substances, mostly cocaine and ecstasy. http://www.frw.uva.nl/cedro/library/ASC95/ASC95.html