Legalising cocaine is ‘something to consider,’ says Antwerp mayor
De Wever's N-VA is the main opposition party in the federal parliament and the largest party in the Flemish government
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Legalising cocaine is “an option that people need to dare to consider,” according to the mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever (N-VA). De Wever, whose port city is one of the European continent’s major entry points for illegal drugs including cocaine, says he has given up on the illusion that the war against drugs can be won. “The battle against alcohol and nicotine has also been abandoned,” he says. “Those products are legalised. We accept the social consequences.” De Wever has some experience of the problem. In 2017 he announced a plan for the city services to work more closely on a new repressive drugs policy as a test of whether the city could cope with a problem that has local, national and international aspects. (See also: Belgian police seize 11.5T of cocaine in ‘largest overseas drug bust ever’)
