This is kind of a tangent, not so great point, but I listen to Dan Carlin who is a pop-style historian who isn't really credentialed but manages to tell history in a fun way.

One of his episodes involves a medieval Germany who has outlawed a ton of things and has tortured people hanging high in the sky off a massive church. One of his points in the episode is that if you end up making too many things illegal, people just stop caring and continue to do the illegal thing. Makes me wonder if my country's heavy handed approached just ended up making people more curious and now cannabis is very popular.

What’s more amazing is that US states have more autonomy in the matter than EU countries.

Germany’s current legislation attempts are thwarted by EU which prohibits any legal market for the drug.

NL style decriminalization is OK because it’s still illegal, individual users are just not prosecuted and the state turns a blind eye on the shops.

But the shops have to get their supply on the black market - something Germany explicitly does not want.

But EU does not allow a legal market.

In other news, despite stereotypes, the NL is not nearly as obsessed with recreational drugs as the US is.