
The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal - kqr2
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/14/portugal/index.html
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usuallyuselss
Anyone else believed drug consumption, possession, trading and the like were
legal in portugal after reading this article?

Well it is not. Only consumption and possession of small amounts is. And that
is the case in a lot of European countries.

Badly written article for leaving out important facts. Author obviously
biased.

<http://www.encod.org/info/PORTUGAL.html>

~~~
Dilpil
That would be legalization, he uses the word decriminalization.

~~~
usuallyuselss
I used "Anyone else believed", not "The article states". Yes, the error is on
my side here, but the author was not very clear.

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sgrove
Upvoted for the possibilities.

It's a (almost confusingly) controversial topic, but there is a lot of good
that could come out decriminalization. I've never done any drugs myself, but I
can think of a number of business opportunities not only in legal narcotics
trade, but also supporting industries. If the objective, empirical evidence
suggests that it does not present society with an immediate nor a long-term
health threat, then the economic and cultural benefits would be exciting.

That said, it will be a considerably long time before metaphors like "The war
on drugs" are dropped in the US. People are passionate about it here.

~~~
usuallyuselss
> but I can think of a number of business opportunities not only in legal
> narcotics trade, but also supporting industries

Like making children addicted and profiting afterwards? Legalizing drugs like
heroin, crack or coke is just sick. Just have a look at what meth has done.

> I've never done any drugs myself,

Talk to one who has, then. It's going to alter your thoughts.

~~~
jonasvp
The assumption most people seem to base their conclusions on is that making
drugs illegal reduces consumption. All empirical evidence so far - even from
less biased sources than the wildly free-market Cato institute - shows that
this is not the case. In countries where more drugs are legal, consumption
actually goes down.

Drug use is a facet of human existence that needs to be managed, not a virus
to be exterminated...

~~~
usuallyuselss
> The assumption most people seem to base their conclusions on is that making
> drugs illegal reduces consumption. All empirical evidence so far - even from
> less biased sources than the wildly free-market Cato institute - shows that
> this is not the case. In countries where more drugs are legal, consumption
> actually goes down.

We have empirical evidence on cannabis, true. In that case (Netherlands)
statistics say that "everything is roughly better", but differences are so
small that it's difficult to say it's due to the drug laws.

We do not have empirical evidence on drugs that make you physically and/or
psychologically addicted after one shot.

And there should be no toying with this. Getting of cannabis after years of
using it is a piece of cake compared to getting of heroin after less than five
shots. It's a totally different story.

~~~
electromagnetic
No it has actually, rather clearly, been shown that in countries like the
Netherlands where drug tolerance is much higher, it has become much more
acceptable for people using opiates to enter rehab.

The process of getting off heroin is extremely hard, in fact going cold turkey
can potentially kill most addicts. So without acceptance the only way off
heroin is strength of will (and a lot of luck) or death. With expansive and
non-judgmental rehabilitation the process becomes easier, and you'd be
surprised that the sheer disgust most heroin users have at themselves when
they've got dry is enough to keep them away from the drug for life.

Most heroin addicts, between the time the high dies and before the low begins,
hate themselves for doing the drug. They aren't corrupt evil people, they're
people who were stupid and didn't necessarily have to be weak willed to get
addicted to it. Many people get much more help for being much more stupid and
much weaker, so why don't we help the people who really need the help?

~~~
MaysonL
Kicking heroin addiction is nowhere near as hard or as dangerous as kicking
alcohol addiction.

~~~
electromagnetic
If it's true alcohol addiction, but with alcohol psychological addiction
usually presents long before physical addiction has completely taken over.
Essentially heroin might kill you if you're a long time addict, but alcohol is
pretty much guaranteed to kill you if you're a long time addict.

------
numair
Americans and their obsession with drugs is so strange. We're 5% of the
population, yet we consume over 50% of all illegal drugs. Something tells me
that this cultural inclination for drug usage makes it much more difficult to
justify legalization. We're a country that can barely handle a free-market
debt system -- I don't even want to know what we would do with a liberalized
drug market.

Then again, I am one of those people who doesn't do drugs, drink, smoke, or
eat processed foods, because I understand that it's extremely expensive (in
that you lose long-term quality of life / life expectancy - the single most
important non-renewable resource for a living creature); I am obviously a
minority...

~~~
jacoblyles
>"We're a country that can barely handle a free-market debt system -- I don't
even want to know what we would do with a liberalized drug market."

There are a ton of packaged assumptions and a nice non-sequitir in just this
one little sentence. That's sloppy rhetoric. It would take a page to unpack
and discuss them all with clear thinking.

>"Then again, I am one of those people who doesn't do drugs, drink, smoke, or
eat processed foods"

Probably most of the people that advocate drug legalization aren't regular
users, and many of them have never used drugs. Rather, they support
legalization because of the effects of prohibition on society. I wouldn't
impute selfish motives to people that disagree with you without understanding
them first.

