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Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

theguardian.com

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Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#31

Post by knowaveragejoe »

log_base_login wrote: post #21
burntrelish1273 wrote: post #7

Two reasons: 0. Military Indu$trial Complex 1. Moral-panicking Christian sociopaths hate poor people

Not sure why you have to point at the members of the Christian religion as the culprit, when there are people of similarly zealous ilk in each and every religion besides Christianity. Certainly, Christianity has the majority stake of religion in the Western world, but this question is a global one, and I don't remember the last time a person was summarily executed for dealing drugs in a Christian country like one mig…

> I don't remember the last time a person was summarily executed for dealing drugs in a Christian country like one might find in Singapore, or their head cut off like one might find in certain Middle Eastern countries, or (again) killed, in certain African countries.

This is precisely what's happening in the Philippines, a predominantly Christian nation, and very devoutly so.

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#33

Post by dkroy »

thrden wrote: post #23

One thing that people aren't considering is that we have legalization experiments within the United States, and we have seen an uptick in marijuana usage[1]. This uptick has been benign because its been limited to Marijuana. I think that given our culture (one that I believe is potentially universal, but I can not speak to universality) has a tendency toward over consumption, its not clear to me that legalization of…

How has this affected tax revenue on these legalization experiments? How has this affected drug related crime as well? Is this increase bad? I would love for someone to dig up these answers as I have referenced Portugal's policy in many arguments, but never the ones we have been trying out here at home as they are newer and often more restrictive in comparison.

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#34

Post by eberkund »

thrden wrote: post #23

One thing that people aren't considering is that we have legalization experiments within the United States, and we have seen an uptick in marijuana usage[1]. This uptick has been benign because its been limited to Marijuana. I think that given our culture (one that I believe is potentially universal, but I can not speak to universality) has a tendency toward over consumption, its not clear to me that legalization of…

I haven't heard it argued that legalizing drugs would decrease usage. Just that it would lead to safer usage, reduce crime, destigmatize addiction and allow for better treatment of addicts.

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#35

Post by [deleted] »

beager wrote: post #8

So it’s apparent that many governments around the world are unwilling to take a similar approach to drug use. But could Google, Apple, Facebook et al provide services there? Create functionality to aid in harm reduction and addiction outreach? What would those things really look like, and would those companies actually leverage their access to billions of people to help with drug abuse?

[deleted]

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#36

Post by froderick »

IME, human beings generally expect things that are true to be intuitive, and tend to interpret causality eagerly. The history of science is littered with folks that ended upon the wrong side of it because their intuition couldn't be rationalized (the earth _not_ being flat, for instance).

It doesn't surprise me that many countries will be very slow to change. Change would require citizens to invest in understanding the research and to recognize that the "obvious" solutions to drug addiction aren't necessarily the effective ones.

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#37

Post by fabrice_d »

thrden wrote: post #23

One thing that people aren't considering is that we have legalization experiments within the United States, and we have seen an uptick in marijuana usage[1]. This uptick has been benign because its been limited to Marijuana. I think that given our culture (one that I believe is potentially universal, but I can not speak to universality) has a tendency toward over consumption, its not clear to me that legalization of…

The benefit of legalizing marijuana is not to decrease usage but to cut financing to dealers. It is also safer for users, and reduces the risk to exposure to more dangerous drugs.

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#38

Post by bob_theslob646 »

>Portugal’s remarkable recovery, and the fact that it has held steady through several changes in government – including conservative leaders who would have preferred to return to the US-style war on drugs – could not have happened without an enormous cultural shift, and a change in how the country viewed drugs, addiction – and itself. In many ways, the law was merely a reflection of transformations that were already happening in clinics, in pharmacies and around kitchen tables across the country. The official policy of decriminalisation made it far easier for a broad range of services (health, psychiatry, employment, housing etc) that had been struggling to pool their resources and expertise, to work together more effectively to serve their communities.

At least in the U.S, we thrive on _treating_ versus curing, plus , didn't you know if you fall on hard times medically especially with anything related to addiction or mental health, you have to bootstrap yourself up from your own bootstraps or go to a 5k a week rehab facility that does not accept insurance.

If drugs are legal in the U.S, who is going to pay all those private jail/prison owners excutive salaries? Where are those corporations going to get the slave labor?

Who is going to pay all those police officers all those raises for keeping drugs off the street?

How are alcohol and tobacco companies supposed to find new consumers whose lives are ruined for possession of marijuana who are unable to secure any form of higher level of employment( extremely difficult) because they were arrested for carrying marijuana.

That's why the United States has not copied it.

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#39

Post by andrewstuart »

thrden wrote: post #23

One thing that people aren't considering is that we have legalization experiments within the United States, and we have seen an uptick in marijuana usage[1]. This uptick has been benign because its been limited to Marijuana. I think that given our culture (one that I believe is potentially universal, but I can not speak to universality) has a tendency toward over consumption, its not clear to me that legalization of…

Where does the assumption come from that the idea is to decrease usage?

I would expect drug usage to increase when legalized.

Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

#40

Post by anm89 »

Because the goals of US drug policy have nothing to do with public health outcomes or justice by any metric.

US drug policy is incredibly effective at the things it is designed to do,which are keeping prisons full and police budgets enormous. Why would we change a policy which is already perfect?

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