"The conventional, or cartoon, view of our two countries is that the United States is irresponsibly harsh and the Dutch are irresponsibly permissive and we are anti-poles of how you handle drugs," said John Walters, director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. "But on a visit to Holland earlier this year, I was struck by how much commonality there was over the issue of marijuana THC and high-potency cannabis ... Dutch government agencies have been saying this almost ought to be treated as a different drug."

The agreement between Walters and Hans Hoogervorst, the Netherlands' health secretary, calls for more sharing of drug research, but is more broadly viewed as a cessation of hostilities between two nations that have been harshly critical of each other's drug policies in the past. It comes despite the fact that Walters has called the Dutch drug policy "fundamentally irrational" and that the Netherlands is listed by the U.S. as a main source of club drugs like ecstasy.

Nor have the Dutch altered their harm-reduction philosophy regarding drugs, which famously includes allowing open sales of marijuana as so-called "coffee houses."

"My understanding is that this government is more cautious than its predecessor but has made no major changes to the law," said University of Maryland drug-policy expert Peter Reuter. "It has slowed down the program to switch methadone to heroin and has been under pressure to curb the use of cannabis coffee shops by foreigners, but changes have been modest."

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