Spanish legislation is really much the same...
Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
231–240 of 545 posts
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#232This scenario doesn't just happen with drug policy, but with practically any divisive policy discussion. People will debate something that is done elsewhere, and ignore completely that it's done elsewhere. Gay marriage is a prime example, as it's something that has been legalised in a lot of countries now. Every time a country goes through the process of debating whether to legalise gay marriage, there's a bunch of p…
It's interesting how you do the same thing you get mad about other people doing. You say that less guns equals less gun deaths... well duh. Then you go on to say less handguns equals less deaths and this actually isn't true. As it stands, in the developed world more guns does not equate to more violence or more deaths. Obviously there are more deaths due to guns because people have access to them but the argument tha…
I don't really want to get into the gun control debate here, since that isn't the point of the article. But if you compare the developed countries, you will find that the USA has by far the highest firearms homicide rate.
Obviously some of it is cultural, for instance, I'm from New Zealand, and I was raised with the attitude that if you own firearms, you should (almost) never use them for shooting people. They're for target shooting and hunting. Anyway, I digress.
You can find fairly easily on the internet that different countries have different firearms homicide rates per firearm[0], for instance, it stands at 0.00009361 in the USA, and 0.00003567 in New Zealand (one of the lowest, despite relatively high ownership). Which points to cultural differences, or something else.
But, if you look at the developed nations, and look at their firearms homicide rates, you will see that the USA sits at the highest, at around 3 times the rate of the next developed country.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#233The reason why it works in Portugal is because the country is in a rolling crisis, they can't afford expensive drugs. Also, with most of the young people leaving they were left with a very Cristian and traditional country.
I find it really absurd when newspapers attribute societal changes to single policies. The guard is so intellectually dishonest.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#234This scenario doesn't just happen with drug policy, but with practically any divisive policy discussion. People will debate something that is done elsewhere, and ignore completely that it's done elsewhere. Gay marriage is a prime example, as it's something that has been legalised in a lot of countries now. Every time a country goes through the process of debating whether to legalise gay marriage, there's a bunch of p…
> This scenario doesn't just happen with drug policy, but with practically any divisive policy discussion. People will debate something that is done elsewhere, and ignore completely that it's done elsewhere. That's called being a sovereign state. Else we'll just all adopt some universal law (of course everybody imagines this law to be one they like. Would you be OK if it was based on Swedish or Saudi Arabian or Guate…
That's a strawman. The opposite of "ignore completely that it's done elsewhere" is not "copy the other country's law letter by letter". From how it sounds to me, the grandparent argues for learning from other country's experiences and mistakes.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#235Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
> less handguns = less deaths. This does not follow. Take Brazil for example. 60k homicides per year, and guns are pretty much forbidden. Of course, criminals don’t seem to care.
How about accidental deaths? If you don't have a gun, there's a very slight chance that your kid will accidentally shoot itself in the head. In most European countries, accidental gun deaths aren't a thing at all. In the US however, it's a daily thing.
Suicides are actually the main cause of death by firearm. It's a remarkably convenient and easy way to kill yourself.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This scenario doesn't just happen with drug policy, but with practically any divisive policy discussion. People will debate something that is done elsewhere, and ignore completely that it's done elsewhere. That's called being a sovereign state. Else we'll just all adopt some universal law (of course everybody imagines this law to be one they like. Would you be OK if it was based on Swedish or Saudi Arabian or Guate…
That's a strawman. The opposite of "ignore completely that it's done elsewhere" is not "copy the other country's law letter by letter". From how it sounds to me, the grandparent argues for learning from other country's experiences and mistakes.
No it's not. Why are you using quotations when he didn't actually write that?
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#238> “There was a point whenyou could not find a single Portuguese family that wasn’t affected. Every family had their addict, or addicts. This was universal in a way that the society felt: ‘We have to do something.’” To be noted is when is it more useful to decriminalise, compared to conventional methods? I would say there is a point, say 5% or 10% population already users when it becomes more beneficial to decriminali…
You seem to be confusing legalisation with decriminalisation. In the latter case the state stops incarcerating the offenders but doesn't stop discouraging drug use.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#239It is well important to see, where we came from. I think it was in the beginning of the 20th century, where many drugs where legal and addicted people where thought of like alcoholics: People with a serious problem or ill people, not criminals.
Than, came in politics and the "war on drugs" that really was a war against the consumers. First of Chinese people, than on colored people and than ...
If you really want to fight a "war on drugs", fight the reasons, that let people start taking those things .... but that might cost some money on social projects ... and will give no big corporations money for building prisons.
Re: Portugal’s radical drug policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?
#240This scenario doesn't just happen with drug policy, but with practically any divisive policy discussion. People will debate something that is done elsewhere, and ignore completely that it's done elsewhere. Gay marriage is a prime example, as it's something that has been legalised in a lot of countries now. Every time a country goes through the process of debating whether to legalise gay marriage, there's a bunch of p…
All the rights you brought up have a strong moral component. Moral questions can't be answered by looking to other countries with different morals.
Are there any rights that do not have a moral component?
The right to not be a slave is a moral right. That's literally the definition of a right. First entry from Google's dictionary:
> morally good, justified, or acceptable.