Sex, Drugs and Democracy (1994)

08/07/1994

Overview

The Dutch idea of a free society includes a legalized sex industry, the open sale of marijuana and hashish, total equality for gays, distribution of clean syringes and methadone to addicts, and government financed abortion, euthanasia and sex education for schoolchildren. Has this unconventional approach changed Holland from a land of tulips, windmills and wooden shoes into a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah? Apparently not. In Holland rates of drug use, addiction and AIDS transmission are extremely low, and the Dutch have the lowest rates of abortion, teenage pregnancy and imprisonment in the world. Filmed over the course of many months spent in Holland by writer/director Jonathan Blank, the provocative documentary has revealing interviews with everyone from government officials, police, clergy and scientists to club owners, drug dealers and prostitutes and outrageous scenes from hash bars, brothels, nightclubs, prisons and rallies.