Comparative Politics of Heroin, etc.

I'm late catching up with Peter Moskos' Washington Post story in which he offers up some gee-whiz numbers on the use of drugs in the US v. The Netherlands:

In America, 37 percent of adults have tried marijuana; in the Netherlands the figure is 17 percent. Heroin usage rates are three times higher in the United States than in the Netherlands. Crystal meth, so destructive here, is almost nonexistent there. By any standard -- drug usage rates, addiction, homicides, incarceration and dollars spent -- America has lost the war on drugs.

Link. The sensitive reader will say "Ha! Just legalize the stuff!" and I don't disagree: basically (and after long resistance) I have come around on the issue of legalization, at least as far as marijuana is concerned (might as well; I'm in California). But I wouldn't oversimplify. For example, not even the Netherlands legalizes heroin use. The lower level of heroin use probably depends on a whole lot of factors, some of which we understand and some not. In a way, this is a parallel to the arguments we have about comparative gun control: Switzerland has guns everywhere and a low gun murder rate. Well, yes and no. Switzerland does have a lot of guns, but heavily integrated with the military (and military training)--also a highly homogeneous culture. Marijuana legalization is probably a good thing, but it won't make us into the Netherlands, any more than our gun-happy Second Amendment culture turns us into Switzerland.