Werthless wrote:Drug use in Portugal falls after dicriminalization

...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.
...
Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
...
The Cato paperreports 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 from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.

After a week and a day as a Democrat, Mr. Specter is viewed with suspicion by his new Democratic colleagues, with general disdain by his old Republican friends, and with an odd mix of amusement and pity all around.

.....

Under intense analysis of his every move and utterance, Mr. Specter canceled a scheduled appearance on Wednesday night on “Larry King Live” on CNN.

Behind the scenes, he was scrambling to find money to save the jobs of several aides after losing the payroll authority that came with his committee and subcommittee chairmanships as a Republican.

.....

“Arlen,” Mr. Reid said in his trademark low-volume growl, “What’s going on here?”

Mr. Specter replied that he had forgotten “what team” he was on. Later, he told a reporter: “I conclusively misspoke.”

Several senators said they felt badly for Mr. Specter and several voiced compassion.

allentown wrote:

Werthless wrote:Drug use in Portugal falls after dicriminalization

...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.
...
Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
...
The Cato paperreports 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 from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.

The evidence against the war on drugs just gets clearer and clearer.

Werthless wrote:Drug use in Portugal falls after dicriminalization

...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.
...
Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
...
The Cato paperreports 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 from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well.

VoxOrion wrote:I don't think the Portugal example is as useful as some will want it to be, at least in terms of comparison to the US. Portugal is a small country with a homogenous population, it's less urbanized than the US, and where it is urbanized the population density doesn't even approach that of the US. It has one dominant religion that enjoys fairly sizable active participation. It's also much poorer, with less than half the per capita GDP of the US.

All this demonstrates is that decriminalization decreased drug usage in Portugal. Then again, that's all Cato or Time are claiming.

Still, I'm in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, though purely from an economic perspective.

Werthless wrote:

VoxOrion wrote:I don't think the Portugal example is as useful as some will want it to be, at least in terms of comparison to the US. Portugal is a small country with a homogenous population, it's less urbanized than the US, and where it is urbanized the population density doesn't even approach that of the US. It has one dominant religion that enjoys fairly sizable active participation. It's also much poorer, with less than half the per capita GDP of the US.

All this demonstrates is that decriminalization decreased drug usage in Portugal. Then again, that's all Cato or Time are claiming.

Still, I'm in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, though purely from an economic perspective.

Has anyone studied the issue closely, and know how wealth, urbanization, homogeneity affect drug use in an area? I'm suspicious that the differences between countries will affect the success of decriminalization to a large extent.

Again, as you point out, Cato and Time were careful not to promise too much. The most convincing argument here was the economic one; ending the war against drug use was cheaper, and allowed for more intensive preventive and rehabilitative measures. And it was a success, even if you operate under the premise that drug use is always bad, because drug use and related diseases decreased. But really, the fight to end prohibition isn't primarily about lowering usage; it's about the high costs of enforcement, cost of incarceration, severed families, dangers in creating a lucrative black market, legitimate medicinal uses, and states' rights. It's just that the usual argument for the opposition is that such an end to the War on Drugs would result in higher drug usage. Portugal's experience shows that this assertion is not necessarily true.

dajafi wrote:The thing I'd like to know is how much of the resources expended on enforcement and incarceration go toward marijuana, and how much toward "harder" drugs. I've heard widely varying statistics on this, but it seems like a question that should have a definitive answer.

VoxOrion wrote:Delco cops used to tell me (back in the mid to early 90's) that they never bothered with people who had pot because none of the judges in the area would prosecute. They just tormented them (for example, you see kids toking in a car, they'd follow them around for 45 minutes just to make them crazy).

jerseyhoya wrote:It's all about the Benjamins

kruker wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:It's all about the Benjamins

That's what I was thinking.