Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results

[SealLion]

Here's some interesting news I found via Stumbleupon.

CHeck it out:



In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.


and the results:



.....the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400..........


There's more of course at the link here:


5 Years After: Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results: Scientific American (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization)




Its a moderate read, but interesting nonetheless.

[splicer]

Definitely a good find; it's a shame other countries don't try this method, as it is obviously shown to work, but again there's always the conservative voting against such law. I have a feeling Britain is turning into a right-wing dictatorship, but that just might be me.

[SealLion]

What do you mean, splicer??

I thought that the UK has a Liberal goverment in office. I would be under the impression that such a centrist goverment would be against such movements towards dictatorship,

Nevertheless, I go to the BBC News every now and then and I do find some interesting tid bits of news.

There is an article here about legalization of drugs.



Five years ago, a Cabinet Office report estimated a figure of £24bn a year - £16bn of that from the costs of acquisitive crime by users funding their habit.

But what if those drugs were legal and regulated? What if heroin and cocaine were available on prescription or at affordable prices?


Here' s the link:



BBC - Mark Easton's UK: Could we save billions by legalising drugs? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/04/heroin_and_cocaine_cost_britai.html)


My country has a conservative goverment and I know for sure that it woldn't legalize such things.

I am beginning to think that there are alternatives to throwing people in jail.

Throwing pple in jail just cuz they hold a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use jjust doesn't sound right to me.

What I read of what Portugal is doing is that they have a judge, a lawyer, and a social worker along with the accused and deciding his/her fate. Sometimes, rehabilitation is what their sentence would be. Now that sounds a little more progress making I would think, yes??

What has the UK been planning lately, splicer??

I'd like to know if you don't mind.

It'd be interesting to know.

[splicer]

On May 7 2008, against the advice of the government's own commissioned report, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, announced the government’s intention to reclassify cannabis as a class B drug. [3] In 2008, the UK government commissioned a study into the effects of the downgrading of cannabis from Class B to Class C. Subsequently British prime minister Gordon Brown announced his government would disregard the findings of the committee, which recommended that cannabis should remain a Class C substance. On 26 January 2009, Cannabis was reclassified as a Class B drug in England and Wales.[4] ~ Cannabis in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_the_United_Kingdom)

I would have written it myself, but copy + pasting was easier.

Had the findings dictated that cannabis was dangerous, then it would have been fair to reclassify it. But Gordon Brown and his government, thought they knew better; knew better than scientists, with qualifications, who went to University to study. Britain is no longer free with Brown in charge. Oh yeh, this was despite the fact that 11 (if I'm not mistaken) MPs (Members of Parliament) have admitted smoking cannabis, including Jacqui Smith (or as the newspapers preferred, Jacqui Spliff).

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6091811.ece

Oh, and they somehow made copying CDs (a physical CD you bought in a store) illegal; again under Gordon Brown's government.

Then there was one time when there was a UK terrorist act or something, which allowed the police to hold suspected terrorists for up to 40 something days. This was seen by MPs as a faith vote (or something, I don't know proper terms), so MPs weren't actually voting for or against the law because they wanted/didn't wan't terrorists to be held by police, but as to whether they wanted Brown as PM.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7645191.stm