Скачать или смотреть Cannabis Culture Awards Amsterdam | Frederick Polak

The Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum Amsterdam confers the Cannabis Culture Awards to those who have distinguished themselves in the struggle for acceptance of Cannabis in all of its forms, working to ensure that this extraordinary plant has a future where it is fully utilized and a history that is fully known.

The Amsterdam psychiatrist Frederick Polak has in recent decades developed into one of the most authoritative voices in the social and political debate on drug policy, in the Netherlands and far beyond.

Between 1994 and 2003, Polak was responsible as a psychiatrist for the drug department of the Public Health Service in Amsterdam. He published dozens of articles about drugs and drug policy and is one of the driving forces behind the Drug Policy Foundation, the Association for the Abolition of Cannabis Prohibition and ENCOD, the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies. Each year, he represents these organisations at the annual meeting of the UN drugs agency UNODC in Vienna.

Through a combination of fairness, tenacity and expertise on the topic, Polak has become a useful thorn in the side of the UNODC. He has on a number of occasions asked Director Antonio Maria Costa the following question: "Why, after more than 30 years of regulated availability to adults, is the use of cannabis in the Netherlands lower than in most other European countries and the U.S. - and not higher, as one would expect if the prohibition of illegal drugs had any effect?"

Neither Costa, nor his Russian successor, Yuri Fedotov, have ever been able or willing to give an answer to this question. Polak's conclusion: the unique Dutch cannabis policy has refuted the theory of prohibition and is living proof that cannabis prohibition is unnecessary. Polak is a popular guest and speaker at conferences and seminars on drugs and drug policy around the world. He tirelessly criticises the irrational and counterproductive "war on drugs" and advocates a rational approach, decriminalisation and harm reduction.