Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 660 posts

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

#461

Post by horns4lyfe »

Heyso wrote: post #430
eastbound wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Why are mental issues so prevalent in USA? Temptative hypothesis 1: People have less roots than in Europe, so they don’t belong somewhere, and have weak ties with close family and no ties with extended family, so they move, and when they fall off their life, there is no social safety net? Temptative hypothesis 2: Americans classify any bad mood as a mental issue? Temptative 3: Medical aid is too expe…

"Mental illness" is also a problem in France. I recommend you check out reddit r/LateStageCapitalism . There is so much to be said about how fuck up our world is, I don't wanna start or i'll write a brick. Elon Musk said recently that school is a joke, and that he do home schooling. Well, he is not the first one to have said it, but he is damn right. Idriss Aberkane has some very good conferences on the subject. In U…

lol you can’t expect to be taken seriously if you are recommending that subreddit.

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

#463

Post by baanlox »

lukeschlather wrote: post #355
comfortabledoug wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the other quotes from the article that have nothing to do with funding... > “When you first back off enforcement, there are not many people walking over the line that you’ve removed. And the public think it’s working really well,” said Keith Humphreys, former senior drug policy adviser in the Obama administration and a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University. “Then word gets out that there’s an open…

https://msdh.ms.gov/page/44,0,382.html Drug overdoses are a nationwide problem in the USA. Mississippi also had a 49% increase in overdoses in 2020. Shelter is a basic human need and depriving people of it on the grounds that they might overdose doesn't seem like it follows. I know plenty of addicts who take care of their things just fine. They're addicted to coffee and alcohol and cigarettes. It's possible that the…

107,000 people in the US died of drug overdoses in the 2022.

400,000 US service members died in WW2.

I think the problem has become so large we are basically in a state of denial and can't put the size of the problem in the proper context.

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

#464

Post by HumblyTossed »

K0balt wrote: post #371
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tent cities don't exist solely in places without access to housing "Access to housing" isn't enough. You might have "access" to health care but unable to afford it. You need housing as a right - even without payment - alongside enough adequate housing for everyone. And allow folks to do things in their own home. If they cannot do it at their home with other people, the person in question does not have adequate housin…

Life is misery by default, as a natural consequence of life itself. The never ending tyranny of the need to eat and avoid being eaten is the normal state of affairs. Honestly, if a person isn’t up for it, we need to stop trying to convince them to stay around and be miserable. Elective suicide should be a basic right, and drugs are one way out. We only create misery by “helping” people that don’t want hep. Criminaliz…

> Life is misery by default, as a natural consequence of life itself. The never ending tyranny of the need to eat and avoid being eaten is the normal state of affairs.

> Honestly, if a person isn’t up for it, we need to stop trying to convince them to stay around and be miserable. Elective suicide should be a basic right, and drugs are one way out. We only create misery by “helping” people that don’t want hep.

What an absolutely miserable outlook on life.

All life is precious and fleeting. We should respect it.

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

#465

Post by donatj »

DropInIn wrote: post #446
donatj wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're addicted to coffee and alcohol and cigarettes. It's possible that the problem is not the drug itself but the social stigma attached to the drug. I assure you there is a difference between coffee/cigarettes and methamphetamine beyond just stigma. Coffee and tobacco both improve your mental capabilities without short-term downsides. No one’s been fired for showing up with a coffee or tobacco buzz and being mo…

When meth was literally 15$ a gram back in my youth (shipping hub) there was no one robbing anyone for it, as an hour or two at any job would pay for a GRAM (large amount) of Pure meth (and I mean high quality pure without any opacity nor color). Back then most people I knew were using it, in the same way they would use an energy drink, and there were nearly no problems aside from the morons who wouldn't stop parting…

To my point though, if you took away cheep coffee, everything is fine. Take away cheap meth, everything is not fine.

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

#466

Post by BeFlatXIII »

dazc wrote: post #210
scaramanga wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah gosh, like, wow, you can't arrest someone without a jolly good reason... I can see the sad-faces all around, as journo's at the Oligarch's Daily Tribue lament that human rights are completely out of control now that cops can't roust people and smack them around for the crime of making their own personal choices, harming nobody. "B..b..but what about property values?!"

"B..b..but what about property values?!" You mean that thing around which the entire economies of the western world revolve around?

All the more reason to let them crash.

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

#467

Post by kagakuninja »

thucydides wrote: post #61

n=1: during my visit to lisbon in 2021, i was accosted twice by burly guys near my hotel[1] who aggressively asked if i wanted to buy weed or cocaine. the first time, the guy was so angry at my refusal ("no thanks, man") that he followed me up a public staircase to continue his pitch. he backed off when i returned his verbal aggression. so maybe the portuguese policy could use some tweaking. [1] https://goo.gl/maps/y…

Sounds like a trip to the Tenderloin in SF. Dealers are everywhere.

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

#468

Post by unix_fan »

d1l wrote: post #436
pmoriarty wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you are suffering day in and day out in crushing poverty, that you see nothing but crime and hopelessness all around you, that your friends and family have been killed or are rotting away in jail, that you are looked down upon, spat upon, and despised, that you see no hope of bettering or escaping your situation. Then imagine you've taken something that infinitely transforms your world and makes you feel amaz…

This is a fantasy, a romance. It very little resembles the reality I've seen. Many addicts I've known and seen come from stable environments and it is because of their incessant drug use that they end up poor, homeless and degraded. Of course some addicts definitely start in "crushing poverty" but many do not. It affects people from every background, every social strata. If your hypothesis were correct than the housi…

I come from a developing country, and I agree. very often, the people consuming drugs come from a stable socioeconomic background from middle to upper class. When my family and I lived in a poor neighborhood, we didn’t notice anyone with an addiction problem, Perhaps one well-known case, at most. Once we started to move into wealthier, neighborhoods, however, it became far more visible.

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

#469

Post by oneshtein »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #330
mcpackieh wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've got a communist in this thread being dismissive of 30 million dead. Communism is morally an intellectually bankrupt. It's an ideology for the bitter and depraved.

Do we? You can't mean me since I haven't referred to 30 million dead. How many have died under capitalism?

Liberal capitalism prohibits that. Value of human life is equal to infinity, except when in war. Utilitarian or «wild» capitalism did lot of harm to peoples and environment. For example, selling of addictive drugs is very profitable business, which kills or disables people.

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

#470

Post by pc_edwin »

pc_edwin wrote: post #406

[flagged]

I just don't get how is this not obvious.

There are a lot of seriously SICK or DISREGULATED people who are ILLEGALLY staying in PUBLIC AREAS causing PUBLIC HARM. They are taking part in ILLEGAL activities that are generally degenerate, indecent and uncivilised.

Any normal functioning society handle this with a proportionate response and its really really simple. YOU REMOVE THESE PEOPLE FROM SOCIETY.

They forfeited their right to participate in society through their actions and/or their condition.

This is how we have been handling this issue for ever!

Post reply on HN