Saturday March 14, 2009 06:19 EDT
The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal
In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, a distinction which continues through to the present. Last year, working with the Cato Institute, I went to that country in order to research the effects of the decriminalization law (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin) and to interview both Portuguese and EU drug policy officials and analysts (the central EU drug policy monitoring agency is, by coincidence, based in Lisbon). Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.
by Glenn Greenwald
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That is an interesting post. I just wanted to mention that making things not a crime and legallising something isn't the same thing. I assume both ways of dealing with it have pros and cons.
I watched a video that in Oregon they have Medical Marijunna and some people want the state to take over growing it, and I guess there is a lot of debate over if the state could really handle it.
On a side note from the previous post, maybe I'll see you at the parade on sunday.
(i posted before i read (e:metalpeter)'s post! how funny!)