Consider this: A senior health official in Amsterdam[1] , a city famous for its legal weed, has called sugar a "dangerous" and "addictive" drug[2] that should be regulated.


"Sugar is a drug just like alcohol and tobacco[3] ," said Paul Van Der Velpen, the head of the Public Health Service of Amsterdam, which monitors the health of area residents and provides services like vaccinations and STD testing.


"The obesity epidemic is expanding and will lead to rising health care costs," Van Der Velpen asserted in a Sept. 12 press release titled, "Sugar Is The Most Dangerous Drug Of This Time[4] ."


"When someone eats sugars, he'll want more, even when the feeling of hunger has passed. Give someone eggs and he'll stop eating at a given moment," he continued. "The food industry abuses this mechanism, and therefore makes food products (unnecessarily) sweeter."


So, to combat the problem, the health honcho proposes putting labels on sugary drinks and other overly sweet products. The labels, he says, should warn that sugar is addictive and can be bad for someone's health.


The official's assertions are remarkable because the Netherlands is one of the few places where marijuana is legal. Even compared to the rest of the country, which rolled back its permissive pot laws last year, Amsterdam's weed policies are especially liberal. The United States, on the other hand, spends about $7.7 billion a year enforcing marijuana prohibition. Meanwhile, more than one-third of Americans are obese while Netherlands's obesity rate is less than half of that.

[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]



Earlier on HuffPost:




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  • A man eats fast food on a street in Beijing on 10 July, 2008. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)




  • A child reacts at his dormitory of a base of the Aimin Slimming Centre on July 10, 2007 in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)




  • This picture taken on June 14, 2012 shows an overweight Chinese patient receiving acupuncture treatment at the Aimin (Love the People) Fat Reduction Hospital in the northern port city of Tianjin. (MARK RALSTON/AFP/GettyImages)




  • This picture taken on June 14, 2012 shows overweight Chinese people and foreigners exercising after acupuncture treatment at the Aimin (Love the People) Fat Reduction Hospital in the northern port city of Tianjin. (MARK RALSTON/AFP/GettyImages)




  • A 10-month-old baby boy, whose name was not given, sits on a cot at a children hospital in the Hunan provincial capital of Changsha on August 11, 2010. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)




  • An obese Chinese boy does sit-ups as he takes part in a weight-lost camp in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province, on August 3, 2010. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)




  • Fifteen-year-old Huang Jiaxin, is being treated for obesity at the Aimin Slimming Centre on March 13 in Wuhan, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)




  • Obese Chinese boys do sit-ups as they take part in a weight-lost camp in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province, on August 3, 2010. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)




  • Four-year-old Lu Zhihao who weighs 62 kilograms, reacts during his class at a kindergarten in Foshan city in southern China's Guangdong province Tuesday April 12, 2011. (AP Photo)




  • A child is being weighed at a base of the Aimin Slimming Centre on July 10, 2007 in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)




  • An young overweight boy (L) known locally as a 'Little Emporer' plays by the Yangtze river in Chongqing, 21 August 2006. (MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)




  • Min Hao, a ten-year-old Chinese boy, sits on a bed during a weight-losing summer camp organized by the Aimin Slimming Centre July 10, 2006 in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)




  • Singers from an obese girl band named 'Qianjin' (in Chinese it means girl or one ton), take part in a dance at the opening ceremony of a club for obese people on June 10, 2006 in Beijing, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)




  • Fifteen-year-old Huang Jiaxin stands below a cherry blossom tree at the East Lake Scenic Area on March 22, 2006 in Wuhan, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)




  • Huang Jiaxin, fifteen-years-old, performs weight reducing exercise at the Aimin Slimming Centre on March 20, 2006 in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)