Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?

[BridgeTheGap]

Pop quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It's not the Netherlands.)

Although its capital is notorious among stoners and college kids for marijuana haze–filled "coffee shops," Holland has never actually legalized cannabis — the Dutch simply don't enforce their laws against the shops. The correct answer is Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.

The question is, does the new policy work? At the time, critics in the poor, socially conservative and largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate Portugal's drug problem; the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe. But the recently released results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, suggest otherwise.

The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

[grannie4peace]

1. thanks for the info

[SlingBlade]

2. Psssst..... I dont think Americans are supposed to

be reading such stories :scared:

[nilram]

6. it's in Time magazine, it must be okay...

right?

::shrug::

[WyLoochka]

3. This is citing a Glenn Greenwald Paper

That he wrote for Cato

Go direct - watch Greenwald from April 7 on in this podcast:

http://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/podcast-archive.php?podcast_id=870

[Peace Patriot]

4. With the war on Iraq "winding down" (to an occupying force to protect the oil contracts),

the war profiteers gotta have another cash cow. The U.S. "war on drugs" is it. That is the problem--that, and the "prison-industrial complex," the accompanying fascist boondoggle.

You only have to review the history of the "Prohibition" of alcohol in the U.S. to understand how insane the prohibition on drugs is. And we've let it become a fully entrenched, fascist establishment--very, very hard to attack and dislodge. The first Prohibition only lasted ten years and it wreaked havoc with civil liberties in that short time, and was fast creating a fascist police state. Luckily, the American people smartened up and rescinded "Prohibition" before it became as entrenched as the U.S. "war on drugs." We have a whole lot of work to do, to restore our democracy, but ending the "war on drugs" should be a top priority. You cannot have a democracy and simultaneously engage in a war on the private behavior of the citizens of the democracy, and incarcerate millions of people for holding a joint in their fingers, or snorting cocaine, or selling it, and take their houses and cars and businesses and lock them up for 20 years, and pour BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars in military aide into foreign countries--with the more money you pour in, the more cocaine comes pouring out. You cannot do this and call yourself a democracy. You have become a repressive fascist state. And that is very, very difficult to undo--but it must be done.

:patriot:

[groovedaddy]

5. We really need to do something different here but there are certainly entrenched interests

who benefit from the "war on drugs," i.e. the prison industrial complex, corrupt cops, judges, not to mention organized crime.

[crikkett]

7. ...the entrenched interests thankfully don't write the laws

even if they buy the lawmakers...

[groovedaddy]

8. Under Bush, they did write laws. n.t

[crikkett]

9. do you think that's still the case today? n/t

[groovedaddy]

10. No, thank god! n.t