Rotterdam drugs campaign ('Jouw high, zijn low')
Also: Drugscampagne Rotterdam · Jouw high, zijn low · Drugs Impact Rotterdam
“Jouw high, zijn low.”
City of Rotterdam campaign, running since October 2023, that ties recreational cocaine and ecstasy use to the gang violence of the drug trade. The first posters showed a coffin with a cross made of two lines of cocaine ('Your hit, his execution') and pills as a hand grenade. Later phases (June 2025 on) added short films 'Jouw high, zijn low' (your high, his low), QR codes to an interactive 'journey of your line' from Latin America to Rotterdam, geotargeted social ads at bars and festivals with health risks and a route to help, and a norm-setting push to 18-25-year-olds.
- Years
- 2023–now
- Country
- Netherlands
- Budget
- EUR 100,000 a year budgeted through 2026 under the coalition agreement, topped up from 'ondermijningsgelden' (anti-organised-crime funds) (council letter, 8 July 2025).
- Topic
- Drugs
- Asks people to
- Never startStop
- Strategy
- Fear appealService linkSocial norms
- Channel
- OutdoorPoint of salePrintSocial (paid)Website
- Audience
- AdultsYoung adultsRecreational users in Rotterdam, especially occasional users in bars, festivals and student houses; the 2025 public phase focuses on 18-25-year-olds via the street, social media, (sports) schools and hospitality venues.
Evidence
NoneUnknown
No campaign evaluation found. The city's annual wastewater study (KWR) estimated about 59,000 lines of cocaine and 3,100 ecstasy tablets used daily in March 2025, broadly the same as 2024; the city reads cocaine as stable to slightly down but does not attribute this to the campaign.
Sponsor (who paid)
- Gemeente Rotterdam (City of Rotterdam) Foreign government, funder and creator
Credits (who made it)
- Kaaps Film Production source
Executions (individual ads)
- Jouw high, zijn low | Drugscampagne social-paid · youtube
- Jouw high, zijn low | Drugscampagne (version 2) social-paid · youtube
- Jouw high, zijn low | Drugscampagne (version 3) social-paid · youtube
- 'Gelegenheidsgebruikers' aangesproken bij drugscampagne social-organic · youtube
Sources
Research notes
Drafted by Claude (Claude Code) on 2026-10-28 for #130 from DutchNews.nl, the July 2025 council letter (PDF, read in Dutch) and YouTube uploads (oEmbed-checked); unreviewed, including the cardSummary. Covers cocaine and ecstasy (and mentions cannabis in the wastewater data); filed under stimulants because cocaine is the lead image. Kaaps Film uploaded the 'Jouw high, zijn low' films, so it is credited as production; the creative agency is not named in any page opened. The 2023 launch was led by alderman Vincent Karremans; the 2025 phase by alderman Pascal Lansink-Bastemeijer. Search results mention a Tweede Kamer motion asking for a national campaign on Rotterdam's model and a marketing critic saying it starts discussion rather than changing behaviour (not opened). drugsimpactrotterdam.nl answered HTTP 200 on 2026-10-28 (content not read). Check the EUR 100,000 and 59,000-lines figures before reuse; the city itself warns that converting wastewater values to lines is an estimate.
Record cases/nl-rotterdam-drugs-campaign.json, updated 2026-10-28· Link to this campaign