Prohibice vs. dekriminalizace - dva rozdílné přístupy k drogové problematice

The main subject of this study is a comparation of two different policies which are used to cope with the drug abuse problem - prohibition and decriminalization. Example is set on the U.S. and the Netherlands. First, each policy is described in detail. Subsequently, both policies are compared according to criteria of the drug use prevalence and the direct costs related with them. The Netherlands, which applies decriminalization, has maintained lower drug use prevalence than the U.S for long time and in almost all kinds of drugs and age groups. Moreover, Netherlands it achieves at the same or lower relative costs. Yet, the higher drug use prevalence does not prove ineffectiveness of policy prohibition. It seems that the U.S. is more likely to have higher prevalence due to more general tendency of using drugs in population. The study also shows that the decriminalization can be linked to increase of drug use that followed its introduction in Netherlands.