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Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#41

Post by cubefox »

marcod wrote: post #5
EA-3167 wrote: post #4

I love it, the entire argument of this article boils down to, "A problem with visibility" rather than any failure of the policy. As though an existing problem being visible isn't societal pressure to better address the problem. Oh they also present statistics contained to the 2019-2023 period as though that wasn't pandemic-driven.

That's what I came away with... so they don't have enough resources for treatment... And the police hands are tied? I'm pretty sure they can still arrest people who commit crimes, just not for using drugs. Also, why was it working for a few years and now it's not anymore? Could it be that the pandemic and economic downturn caused more people to turn to drugs and reduced funding? Ah, they hid that answer in the last p…

> Also, why was it working for a few years and now it's not anymore?

This is addressed in the article.

Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#42

Post by ndlan »

personjerry wrote: post #12

> Porto’s police have increased patrols to drug-plagued neighborhoods. But given existing laws, there’s only so much they can do. On a recent afternoon, an emaciated man in striped pants sleeping in front of a state-funded drug-use center awoke to a patrol of four officers. He sat up, then defiantly began assembling his crack pipe. Officers walked on, shaking their heads. What were they supposed to in a different cou…

Arrest him and put him through forced rehab.

Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#43

Post by boringuser2 »

People who think drugs should be descriminalized often have no experience with actual criminal justice, and are often recreational drug users themselves (i.e. too close to the issue).

It is a conspiracy theory to believe that drug criminalization has a strictly for-profit motive despite near universal adoption as a policy. That is to say, you believe a conspiracy theory casually.

Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#45

Post by lolinder »

palata wrote: post #33
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> solve poverty How?

Maybe a first step would be to prevent the ultra rich to get even richer.

Preventing the rich from getting richer does nothing in and of itself to help the poor. You might do things to help the poor that as a side effect make it harder to accrue absurd amounts of wealth, but if your goal from the outset is simply to eliminate all billionaires, there are lots of ways to do that that will only end up hurting the poor as well.

Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#47

Post by mavu »

gumby wrote: post #13
virgildotcodes wrote: post #7

Talk about burying the lede, 11 years ago they privatized their drug oversight operation and cut funding by over 80%. Gee, I wonder if that could have an impact? > After years of economic crisis, Portugal decentralized its drug oversight operation in 2012. A funding drop from 76 million euros ($82.7 million) to 16 million euros ($17.4 million) forced Portugal’s main institution to outsource work previously done by th…

Wish I could have upvoted this comment a couple of more times.

I've got your back.

Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#48

Post by jurynulifcation »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #17

Has any advanced civilization been gung-ho about legalized drugs? There are probably strong socioevolutionary reasons why this is the case.

What do you consider advanced? Keeping in mind, of course, that cocaine was legal in the US until ne'er-do-well do-gooders decided they knew better for everyone. That is why we have Coca Cola, which is a formulation of Mr. John Pemberton's Cocaine-Fortified Wine. It's only very recently that we have decided to start imprisoning people for the simple fact of putting things into their bodies.

So, again, what do you consider advanced? If we go back to the foundations of Western civilization, we find the Greeks quite enjoyed getting high on many interesting substances. The Romans and Egyptians as well.

What about native populations on the US continent? The Peyote tribe literally have a mescaline-bearing cactus named after them, along with all the various substances known to the South Americans before the Spaniards decided to put the torch to their accumulated cultural practices. (c.f. The Florentine Codex)

The histories of China and India are also rife with periods of legalized substance use, some good and some bad.

But to your question: yes, there have been many advanced civilizations whom have been "gung-ho" about legalized drugs.

Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#49

Post by cscurmudgeon »

virgildotcodes wrote: post #7

Talk about burying the lede, 11 years ago they privatized their drug oversight operation and cut funding by over 80%. Gee, I wonder if that could have an impact? > After years of economic crisis, Portugal decentralized its drug oversight operation in 2012. A funding drop from 76 million euros ($82.7 million) to 16 million euros ($17.4 million) forced Portugal’s main institution to outsource work previously done by th…

Why should the state spend any money here at all?

If you want the freedom from society to use drugs, then you shouldn't rely on society for that.

Re: Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

#50

Post by arcticbull »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #49
virgildotcodes wrote: post #7

Talk about burying the lede, 11 years ago they privatized their drug oversight operation and cut funding by over 80%. Gee, I wonder if that could have an impact? > After years of economic crisis, Portugal decentralized its drug oversight operation in 2012. A funding drop from 76 million euros ($82.7 million) to 16 million euros ($17.4 million) forced Portugal’s main institution to outsource work previously done by th…

Why should the state spend any money here at all? If you want the freedom from society to use drugs, then you shouldn't rely on society for that.

The argument for why the government should spend money is because not spending it would be more expensive or yield worse outcomes.
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