Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?

Legalize marijuana to begin with, every corner in California has a medical marijuana store. Legalize it and tax every 8th that is bought. This will bring in money that the government needs also you will get a much happier society. If we continue to think we are winning the war on drugs we are setting ourselves up for a rude awakening, think about the Mexican cartels, they have the resources to cause chaos in the united states. Continue to fight the drugs that are the real problems and we might have a chance of not seeing a 8yr popping opiates.

Some continue to support our failed policies for political gain. Others have financial interests in the growing private prison and prison services industries, or get major contributions from the prison industry lobby. Some support the drug war out of good intentions, and believe that we just need to keep doubling down with more jails. There are plain-old racist and/or fascist reasons for some to love this permanent war on ourselves... The only thing missing is one single solitary GOOD reason to keep supporting this policy that not only has made drug abuse more damaging in our society, but also has the collateral damage of mass-incarceration and black-market based violence and victimization.

How much money could we save if we didn't jail people who used/abused drugs, but instead put them in rehab? Who stands to profit if we don't? If there is more money to be made selling legal drugs, decrim will win. If more money can be made catching, trying and then long term jailing people, then which side will win ???

This is valuable information. One may assume that with such information available, as well as the nefarious history of how prohibition came to be in the first place, that if your favorite politician still favors prohibition, your favorite politician is probably not sincere.

It is beyond disgusting that for political gain politicians propagate the lies and distortions that perpetuate drug prohibition and they don't care that people are rotting away in jail. Is your favorite politician one of them? If your favorite politician is against legalizing marijuana, then yes. Your favorite politician doesn't mind putting people in cages to further his or her own political career.

decriminalization across the bord is fine and worthwhile, however, sale of narcotics to anyone under the age 16 should carry a jail sentance for the seller of the narcotics. not for the kid just the person selling it. but realy this is a hastle so I see why they did it across the board regardless of age.

Great post Jenn!! but if this happens here and that's a big IF, the jail owners will find ways to get the addicts first, before anyone else.

WOW what a terrific approach. What would benefit the people? Isn't government supposed to say that every time they make a decision? Refreshing, thanks for the post.

Legalize, reap the benefits.

Excellent article and the information is invaluable.

Great post. This information has been reported before but for some odd reason the main stream won't even give it a good hit and run thus the majority of the American population has ZERO knowledge of the facts. This was only a five year study; the ten year study should produce even better results, that will be whispered to the world.

Yes it did!!!

And you totally tax all of these.

"Featured" at "Culture".

Good post. ( or discussion piece, or whatever c u r r e n t now calls em )

BIG +^d !

The Netherlanders, of whom I'm directly descended on my dad's side
of my family, have told the U.N. that MJ decrim is the benign way to go.
They have had problems with the rowdiness of foreign tourists maring
the quiet of Dutch neighborhoods in some cities, but it's SMOKING MJ
that produces intoxication as a toxic reaction, for 90% of people it makes
them sedated and sedentary rather than volatile and violent. The use of
inhalers, or eating it doesn't have the same 90 second reaction because
the delivery method is somewwhat slower with inhaling, and very slow
with ingestion through the stomach & intestines. The cover story is that
Prohibition is righteously motivated to punish users to prevent crime.
But the reality is an extreme contradiction to that phony cover story.

By criminalizing it, it arbitrarily makes everyone who uses it for
medicinal/religious purposes a criminal. And it puts the trade in the
hands of organized crime. They know that better than anyone else.
By criminalizing something it makes the trade in it worth 100 times
what it did when it was legal and no big thing. As a direct result of this
hated, unjust policy, a $2.3 Trillion annual business has sprung up
in the USA every year. We call this the Prison Industrial complex.
Because the State and Federal prisons are so overcrowded as a
result of incarcerating otherwise law abiding citizens, they have to
contract with privateeers to house them in inhumane conditions
where inmates get victimized by violent crime. Dick Cheney and
Gonzales-Bush Jr's VP and 3rd A.G.were Indicted in one county
in Texas by an honest prosecutor for crimes against Texas laws
because they were the profiteers mismanaging a private prison.

They knew fvrom the time the Vollstead Act was enacted in the
1920s in the Prohibition of alchohol that it was a disaster. Every
one was on the take from bootleggers from police chiefs to cops
to local D.A.s, to Judges, to mayors to Congresspeople. There
were shootouts in the streets that were worse than in the old West
terroritories. Do you think that they ended one Prohibition only
to begin another Prohibition a few years later because they were
benign ? Horse hockey. Like the Romans of Jesus' time, they freed
a criminal and anarchist then crucified a savior because they are
what they are-unduely influenced by Organized Crime-benefiting
monentarily from the arrangement. Money is their false God, and
the idea of " promoting the domestic tranquility " is written on their
toilet paper, not the Constitution. Many of the founding fathers
all the way up to Abraham Lincoln were users, and thus criminals
in the eyes of the totalitarians where the name t totaler was born.