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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?

#491

Post by builditand »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #126
nkurz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rarely downvote clear and well-written comments just because I disagree with them, but feel I need to make an exception here. Your "1" is true, but you prefaced it by claiming that it was one of the "major things" the parent was missing. I'm pretty sure he wasn't missing this, as indicated by the sentence "This uptick has been benign because its been limited to Marijuana". Number "2" adds useful distinctions regard…

We should never downvote a comment just because we disagree with it. We should only downvote comments that don't contribute to the discussion. If someone is blatantly wrong, their information could be a common misconception that needs to be addressed and seen by everyone. Comments we disagree with are most often very good additions to the discussion and should be upvoted, even if they're factually inaccurate but ther…

Ambiguous user interface is not the user's fault.

If I up vote when I agree with a post, then I down vote when I disagree. We should have an "off topic" flag for off topic posts and hide the off topic posts, not unpopular ones.

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

#492

Post by Zak »

dalbasal wrote: post #397
ta98789878 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's frustrating to keep seeing people use the phrase "buyback" when they mean "confiscation". In the US, at any rate, a "buyback" is voluntary. For linguistic comparison, the taking of land by eminent domain includes compensation, but one certainly would not say the government "bought" the land.

In Australia it was voluntary.

"You may sell the thing that's about to become illegal for you to possess to the government for a price set by the government" stretches the definition of voluntary.

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

#493

Post by nickik »

mikeash wrote: post #477
nickik wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just ignoring things you don't want to see. Russian peasants actually did stop the government from taking over in 1920. Lenin was forced to enact the NEP because their policies were literally collapsing. There was no other plan behind the NEP, it was written within a 3 month period. It took a massive effort and practically a civil war by Stalin to collectivize agriculture. While the state was eventually succe…

Why didn't the USSR or these Middle Eastern countries just enact gun control first, then enact these other policies without resistance?

Because people don't follow the law when they don't think the government legal code is legit.

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

#494

Post by rusk »

tomjen3 wrote: post #479
rusk wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there may be something to this. Though perhaps a better term than "rebuttal" is "backlash". The conservative backlash has long been mooted by social commentators. It's likely a large cohort of Trumps voters were those who were incensed by "central government interfering in local affairs", in particular the case of Kim Davis springs to mind. Never mind that Trump doesn't exactly embody conservatism, I'd imagin…

Really, you are arguing that Harvey Weinstein is a conservative? I mean I rarely write LOL on this page, but I am literally sitting here and doing that. And yes Roy More, but he wasn't the first and he doesn't seem like he will be the last.

How did you make out that I said he was a conservative? I was drawing on the fact that a lot of conservative voters hold deeply misogynistic worldviews, so yeah I would lump them all into the one category, that defies politics.

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

#495

Post by andrewG2 »

joshuaheard wrote: post #468
IgorPartola wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know. Republicans had warned us that legalizing gay marriage would lead to widespread acceptance of pedophiles. And look now only a couple of years later the Republicans are fully supporting an alleged pedophile who is running for Senate. If you read that as more of a threat than a warning it all makes sense :)

Pedophilia is an attraction to pre-pubescent girls, under the age of 13. Judge Moore is accused of relations with women ages 16 to 22, with one girl 14 years old. The age of consent to sex in Alabama is 16. Thus, Judge Moore is not a pedophile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Moore_sexual_abuse_allegat...

Situation is far more complex than you presented. He probably fall under that category under federal law. Check carefully https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_the_Unite... Anyway, it is up to court to make legal decision on that matter. BTW, even ONE case with that 14 old teen if proven to be true would be sufficient and give him long term to serve in prison. Well, you probably also expect better moral standards from judge, isn't it?

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

#496

Post by IgorPartola »

joshuaheard wrote: post #468
IgorPartola wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know. Republicans had warned us that legalizing gay marriage would lead to widespread acceptance of pedophiles. And look now only a couple of years later the Republicans are fully supporting an alleged pedophile who is running for Senate. If you read that as more of a threat than a warning it all makes sense :)

Pedophilia is an attraction to pre-pubescent girls, under the age of 13. Judge Moore is accused of relations with women ages 16 to 22, with one girl 14 years old. The age of consent to sex in Alabama is 16. Thus, Judge Moore is not a pedophile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Moore_sexual_abuse_allegat...

s/pedophile/sex offender/g. You are technically correct on that one point, the best kind of correct.

He is also not accused of relations with a 22 year old. He is accused of assault. Difference being someone taking you out on a date, vs someone grabbing your junk and forcing themselves on/in you without your consent.

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

#497

Post by Retric »

mantas wrote: post #461
Retric wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economic drain of welfare spending is often overestimated. The IRS for example shifts a lot of money from A > B, but it does not cost a lot of money to do that shift. Mostly what changes is who is allocating resources, not the total number of resources to allocate.

Which is technocratically correct. But on the other hand, welfare may enable freeriders. Who are fully capable to make a living themselves, but choose handouts. Of course, next step is that welfare to freeriders is cheaper for the society than freeriders turning into criminals. But even with welfare there're criminals and not all freeriders are criminally minded either.

Freeriders can still create value. See J. K. Rowling for a billionaire example who leveraged social welfare into wealth. I am not saying Welfare is justified, just that is not a major issue.

US has a 18.57 trillion GDP, if you dedicate 10% of that into ~1,500$/month free riders that's ~1/3 of society. As long as most people want more than a subsistence level income it's simply not going to become a big deal. Sure, you in theory lose the economic output of the lazy not just the old or the infirm, but that output is simply not that significant in the first place.

Granted, we spend vastly more than that on many people. But, higher costs are a question of poor implementation not inherent costs.

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

#498

Post by andrewG2 »

belorn wrote: post #380
jonathanstrange wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 2 cent (classical armchair analysis): It seems to me that some of these discussions are mostly dominated by irrationality. This is particularly recognizable in the US, but also occurs in Europe to a degree that varies from topic to topic and country to country. I believe there are two major factors at play. First, certain topics concern taboos that are still strong even in secularized societies. To these belong an…

> amok runs with guns This is the problem when discussing political issues like gun control. Gun related crimes has shown correlation with gun ownership laws. Gun accidents is naturally correlated to gun ownership. Mass public shootings however do not when adjusted for the population, but it draws so much political attention so it always get put into the discussion regardless if it match the data. Gun accidents is al…

If you refer to statistics, and there is official international statistics on that matter, please provide reference. So far I never see any evidence for your point of view. You refer to it like commonly "known" fact, but it is not.

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

#499

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

joshuaheard wrote: post #468
IgorPartola wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know. Republicans had warned us that legalizing gay marriage would lead to widespread acceptance of pedophiles. And look now only a couple of years later the Republicans are fully supporting an alleged pedophile who is running for Senate. If you read that as more of a threat than a warning it all makes sense :)

Pedophilia is an attraction to pre-pubescent girls, under the age of 13. Judge Moore is accused of relations with women ages 16 to 22, with one girl 14 years old. The age of consent to sex in Alabama is 16. Thus, Judge Moore is not a pedophile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Moore_sexual_abuse_allegat...

>Pedophilia is an attraction to pre-pubescent girls

Girls or Boys. Pedophilia is not gender specific.

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

#500

Post by [deleted] »

ceejayoz wrote: post #344
gozur88 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That said - gun show loophole is just that - a loophole. Should be fixed. The "gun show loophole" is a misnomer. It's not a loophole. It's simply the case in most states in the US for private sales you're allowed to sell your gun to another person without checking with the federal government first, something that's not true of dealers.

"It's not a loophole. It's simply [describes something that anyone can see is a loophole]."

[deleted]
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