There, fixed it for you. No charge.
Posted on 09/27/2010 1:21:01 PM PDT by La Lydia
...Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? .....At the time, critics in the poor, largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate Portugal's drug problem; the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe. But the recently released results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute suggest otherwise.
The paper...found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
...Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana. The Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell ...
...the data shows that decriminalization does not result in increased drug use. Since that is what concerns the public and policymakers most about decriminalization, he says, "that is the central concession that will transform the debate."
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
...didn't mean to scream at you with that banner.
I got one on my back windshield.
You can get one at Newsbusters.org
Well, your post brought out the Liberaltarians that had been in hiding.
Well, your post brought out the Liberaltarians that had been in hiding.
I think Singapore’s position on illegal drug use, there it is a capitol crime, is far superior to Portugal’s legalization.
Citation?
However, for the record, UK and other European countries have tried to ‘legalize’ drugs and remove the punitive aspect of use. It has not had the same miraculous impact that is being reported in Portugal by this article. Therefore, I am going to take this information with a very large grain of salt.
Progressives (communists/socialists) the worked over have one very similar method used to achieve their goals. They lie. Repeatedly. And then manufacture data to prove their lie is the truth. If that fails, then they attack their opponents personally. If you always remember that whatever a progressive says is a lie, you will have a clearer direction to proceed. Very simple bet very effective.
later read
ROFLMAO! Boy does that bring back memories.....like almost 50 years ago, when young, un-sophiscated (but trying to appear suave and debonair) guys like me took a date to dinner and that (wine) is about all we ever ordered.
Unbeknownst to us, Mateus was but a step above Richards Wild Irish Rose or Thunderbird or what my Mom used to buy for us kids to celebrate the Holidays (though hardly Jewish) and that was Manischewitz.
“It is basically the same as the moral need to create HOV lanes, because it is immoral to drive in a car by yourself. “
And I say it is immoral to steal my money, to build HOV lanes for others to use, but not pay for.
In that case your relatives would be dead or in prison. I find that curious.
Timing is everything. Does anyone really entertain the thought that now is the time, with total chaos happening in Mexico, to create an unquenchable demand for hard drugs, even it only for the short term if Portugal’s experience is legitimate?
I think one of the points of the report is that demand went down, not up, if you take time out of your busy day to actually read the article.
There, fixed it for you. No charge.
I don't think I understand your question. Beer is legal. It's illegal to be intoxicated by beer in public.
Serious drug abuse causes so much damage to the human body that ever greater amounts of pain killing drugs have to be used.
Those two relatives of mine are existing in a living hell. Their bodies are literally falling apart and/or organs are shutting down. Their only hope is that the government will keep providing medical remedies, remedies you and I pay for out of tax revenue.
If either could be productive citizens again perhaps they could go back to work and help pay for others like themselves. But their only desire is to stay stoned.
The Welfare State and the criminalization of drugs are two symptoms of the same destructive disease: the idea that the Nanny State is here to take care of you. You think you're helping people by making drugs illegal, but you're just treating them like children. And that fosters the idea that the government is here to take care of you when something bad happens to you. I've got a better idea: let adults make their own decisions. And when they screw up, their mistakes are on them.
Wanna see how well prohibition works, watch Boardwalk Empire. An incredible HBO special. Drug prohibition works as well as gun prohibition in New York. No difference. Every person owns their body and is free to do with it as they please. Drugs are evil or can be, but is pot worse than alcohol. I don’t think so.
What you are seeing now is nullification of the marijuana laws and next will be other drug laws.
“...the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.”
Sounds like demand went up.
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