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www.salon.com/opinion/gre...l/index.html
Glenn Greenwald
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.
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www.salon.com/opinion/gre...l/index.html
Glenn Greenwald
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.
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Re: drug decrim
Mon, March 16, 2009 - 4:57 PMTo quote Gomer Pyle, "Sur-PRISE! Sur-PRISE! Sur-PRISE!" Unfortunately, decriminalization will never take place in the UNited States. There are far too many people, on both sides of the law, whose livelihoods are dependent on keeping drugs illegal.
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Re: drug decrim
Mon, March 16, 2009 - 8:47 PMUS drug policy is to dumb as much agent orange (paraquat) on as many small villages as they can (illegally by international law) get away with and dump as much gasoline on every prohibition related fire on earth. Seriously, if it's US policy (over the last 10 years) you can guarantee it only made things worse. I'll bet my truck title on it if we crunch the data, usage statistics and disease reports. Anyone up for an equal bet? Pink slips?
