"Portugal's Experiment in Drug Decriminalization Has Been a Success"

What is the solution in the drug "war"? We've talked about this at PN meetings. An expatriation personality in Uruguay says recreational drugs have been legalized in his native UK, but it's hard getting any documentation on that. 

In my favorite discussion forum, two stories just in: 

http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=179110&Disp=0

Cartel Land Trailer (2015) Documentary Movie HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkYBbBK0qoM

and that of today's post title:

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/36406/Mark-Thornton-Portugals-Experiment-in-Drug-Decriminalization-Has-Been-a-Success/?uuid=6F7FEBBA-5056-9627-3CD68EED0512AF67  

This month, Portugal celebrates fourteen years of drug decriminalization. The grand experiment is now considered a happy success considering it was adopted out of desperation and in the face of dire warnings from proponents of the global drug war. 

What Led to Decriminalization 

During the mid-twentieth century, Portugal experienced fifty years of military dictatorship, and when leftist democratic control was reestablished in 1974, many expatriate Portuguese returned to Portugal from its colonies. Of course, many of these people were dissidents, outsiders, and outcasts, and many of them used illegal drugs. 

Over the next twenty-five years, there was a surge in drug use, drug abuse, addiction, overdoses, and eventually a very substantial prevalence of HIV/AIDS and other dirty-needle-related diseases. At the peak of this drug epidemic the rate of drug addiction and HIV/AIDS infection was "considerably higher" than the rest of Europe according to Dr. João Goulão, the longtime drug czar of Portugal. 

Goulão was on the eleven member anti-drug commission that formulated law 30/2000 which decriminalized all drugs starting July 1, 2001. 

The "grand experiment" seems to be the result of two factors. The first is that Portugal is a relatively poor European country and was unable to fight the war on drugs on every front. 

The second factor is that the commission was relatively non-partisan and simply adopted the common sense notion that drug abuse and addiction are not criminal problems for the police to solve. Drug abuse and addiction are medical and psychological problems that are better solved by the individual with the help of professionals and social pressures..........

The film linked first is high drama and no doubt great cinema, but how much of the cartel trouble ameriKa and Mexico have shared is actually in any way necessary? I think countries (us in this case, not them) create drama because it superficially seems to give them validity. Governments definitely go to war, any kind of war, in order to look macho to the citizens. 

IMHO, the ONLY reason ameriKa has ANY drug problems is because politicians and their cronies in business are making fantastic profits off them and it's easier to push around a doped population. 

It should matter to the powers that be that their policies and neuroses bring great, totally needless harm to millions of innocent people, but their consciences are clearly seared with a hot iron. 

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