14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
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Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#2It would be illustrative to see a control of some type, perhaps deaths due to alcoholism. Seeing that trend against the heroin trend would help to illustrate the impact of decriminalization relative to other efforts or changes in law or society.
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#3It would be illustrative to see a control of some type, perhaps deaths due to alcoholism. Seeing that trend against the heroin trend would help to illustrate the impact of decriminalization relative to other efforts or changes in law or society.
I would want the "drug deaths due to overdose" to include alcohol-related overdoses (although it's arguable whether that would include deaths due to alcoholism). Unfortunately I don't think even these enlightened reports do that :-(
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#4Counterpoint, overdoes deaths increased during some years and drug use has markedly increased:
Also the chart supporting less overdose deaths seems to be actually a chart about all drug induced deaths, and not just overdose deaths, which means it could include HIV/AIDS, once a big killer of heroin users which we can now treat for much better.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/10/portugal-decrimin...
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#5When I saw the chart I thought, what's wrong with Estonia?
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#6When I saw the chart I thought, what's wrong with Estonia?
All the Nordics have large problems with drug addiction. They are also tracking them quite well so don't compare them to let's say Romania or Bulgaria where tracking is next to non-existent.
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#7The critical part missing from portugals policy is that drugs must be legal to buy and sell (via controlled channels).
Decriminalizing use helps, but legalizing sales take out the crime and ensures the health of users through clean product.
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#8Counterpoint, overdoes deaths increased during some years and drug use has markedly increased: Also the chart supporting less overdose deaths seems to be actually a chart about all drug induced deaths, and not just overdose deaths, which means it could include HIV/AIDS, once a big killer of heroin users which we can now treat for much better. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/10/portugal-decrimin...
> it could include HIV/AIDS, once a big killer of heroin users which we can now treat for much better.
If it does, that still supports this theory.
My father in law is a leading portuguese HIV expert, and he credits decreminalisation as a key factor in actually getting those patients into clinics and on treatment.
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#9The singular focus on "drug deaths due to overdose" tells an important part of the story, but not the whole story. For example, per Wikipedia, drug use may have doubled after decriminalization.* If so, that's an acceptable tradeoff to me but may not be to others.
Re: 14 Years After Decriminalizing Drugs, Portugal’s Bold Risk Paid Off
#10When I saw the chart I thought, what's wrong with Estonia?
All the Nordics have large problems with drug addiction. They are also tracking them quite well so don't compare them to let's say Romania or Bulgaria where tracking is next to non-existent.
Romania did better than Portugal. What are they doing better than Portugal? Why is Portugal's liberal policy on drugs heralded so great when it's not the best of the list?
(I'm not saying that it's a bad policy but why is the article focused on pushing that policy?)
Also what I want to see: What about Portugal makes it work? Could you test that assertion against a different country if you made the contextual changes and the change there?