Report Portugal Drug Laws Show Promising Results

[Prometheus]

Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal's decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

"There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

The number of addicts considered "problematic" -- those who repeatedly use "hard" drugs and intravenous users -- had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.

Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.

"This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies."

Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal

Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem...

www.forbes.com

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Take a hint, USA.

 

[Jedimindtrixxx]

treat addicts rather than punishing them

Who the fuck thought the opposite was ever a good idea? oh that's right like 90% of politicians....

punishing them is the same as when i clean my room and instead of cleaning shit i just dump it in my closet/parents room to deal with. it doesn't fix the problem, it just puts the problem elsewhere and puts the weight of the problem on someone else (yes i'm a lazy fuck)

:thup: @portugal

 

[DDRtists]

I do drugs, I love drugs, but I am completely against legalizing hard drugs. Sure, there is a LARGE percent of the danger from street drugs being exactly that, they're street drugs. You don't know what they really contain or anything. But even if you get a clean cut of a drug, it still is way easier to mess up than drinking or weed. Drinking, you have to go way way too far to die from, and no ones ever died from weed. However, theres a fine line with drugs like ecstasy and cocaine, and if you go over that fine line, it's game over. And that line is way easier to cross than with drinking or smoking. Most people don't read up on stuff they do, and therefore don't know about what they're doing. We don't need more people that don't know anything about the drug to eat the drug and die. It happens way too much.

I've been at massive raves down in LA, and I've seen people drop due to ecstasy overdoses and lack of water. People don't respect the drug, and people die because of it. Weed and alcohol both have a large window of "you can drink/smoke this much before going too far", the window for drugs is TINY. The last thing we need to do is legalize those drugs and have people killing themselves.

 

[ReVolver]

The last thing we need to do is legalize those drugs and have people killing themselves.

Sums up my whole nation.

 

[Dan]

so their statement is: "because it's decriminalized and.... oh yeah and we have been treating people better and warning them more in the past ten years..."

fail. anyways... regardless of how you feel about the situation... more people will do these drugs if you lift bans. It's pretty simple logic. I think it's probably a bad idea to stop protecting people from themselves. They need it.

 

[Accname]

If you look at it this way:
Every day the drug dealers are fighting for their income too. if drugs are criminalized they will invent a new drug out of a chemical lab which is not. if this drug is forbidden also they will just invent the next drug.
these new drugs they create tend to be far more dangerous and nobody, really nobody can say how dangerous they really are on the long term.

if we do not criminalize the dealing of small amounts of drugs we can at least make sure the dealers do not have to create much deadlier poison.

and all the money saved which we otherwise had to pay to enforce the anti-drug laws we can spend to help those who are addicted, or to educate those who are not addicted to drugs but are on the way to become.

 

[The Helper]

Yes Accname. There is a huge difference though between marijuana and lets say Heroin or Cocaine. You have governments and police treating them all the same. They are not. You get a double standard. Kids see that Marijuana is not what parents, teachers and police say it is and think its the same for heroin and stuff like that. Its not. An underground is also created where drugs are all just lumped into one. What is needed here, is like what Portugal has done. Real education and help for people on drugs. Not a bunch of lies and misinformation trying to scare people into not doing something. If you look at the stats on the drug war in the US and other places it is obvious where these types of policies lead. Until something is done about that, until the people in charge wise up, the dealers will still be able to peddle there poison in any way shape or form to uninformed and unprepared victims. Knowledge is Power!

 

[DDRtists]

Yes Accname. There is a huge difference though between marijuana and lets say Heroin or Cocaine. You have governments and police treating them all the same. They are not. You get a double standard. Kids see that Marijuana is not what parents, teachers and police say it is and think its the same for heroin and stuff like that. Its not. An underground is also created where drugs are all just lumped into one. What is needed here, is like what Portugal has done. Real education and help for people on drugs. Not a bunch of lies and misinformation trying to scare people into not doing something. If you look at the stats on the drug war in the US and other places it is obvious where these types of policies lead. Until something is done about that, until the people in charge wise up, the dealers will still be able to peddle there poison in any way shape or form to uninformed and unprepared victims. Knowledge is Power!

I could not agree more.

And yes, there is a huuuuge difference between marijuana and hard drugs, it's not even comparable. Me personally, I don't even consider being stoned really "being high", it's just "being stoned". I have to smoke a looooot of weed before I consider it that of a "high" similar to other drugs, it's a very unique feeling. And the US, and many other countries, are making it out to be that weed is just as bad as meth and other hard drugs, when it's not. Me personally, THC helps with many of my problems that doctors have tried to prescribe lab meds that have had horrible side effects for years. Marijuana allows me to enjoy life and I look forward to getting up every day and not be in constant pain and mental stress. Seems to do what antidepressants and pain meds have been trying to do for years with a single medication without all the horrible side effects. And while it has many many medical benefits, I also enjoy it on a recreational level as well. All natural for the win. <3

I personally feel hard drugs are better off illegal. While I'd like to stand by "Don't let them tell you what you can and can't do", I think that if legalized, many things wouldn't go as it is in other countries. Just like now, the US is behind in intelligence that most other countries have. Drugs change you, and people don't need that and flat out can't handle it. Such as acid, the first time I ever did LSD, for like 2 weeks I couldn't even think straight after. I looked at EVERYTHING different, I saw things in an entirely new way, because you see the world in geometric patterns and shapes when tripping. You see the world on an entirely new perspective, and you go through memories and the past. My entire thought process and mindset, and full on outlook on the world, is changed since I've done all this stuff.

While I like it and I enjoy it, it is also scarier than anything that you will ever experience on this world at times. And most people can't handle that, and they will lose it and end up hurting or killing themselves or someone else. Drugs are intense, and most people can not handle them.

If you look at it this way:
Every day the drug dealers are fighting for their income too. if drugs are criminalized they will invent a new drug out of a chemical lab which is not. if this drug is forbidden also they will just invent the next drug.

This is 100% true. Great example? 2C-B. It's a man-made lab drug that has similar effects to acid AND ecstasy in a single chemical. When they illegalized it, chemists created 2C-C, and 2C-D. Both were legal, because the chemical structure is different, but the effects were the same, only greater. So 2C-C is twice as strong as 2C-B, 2C-D is twice as strong as 2C-C and four times as strong as 2C-B, as so forth. Eventually they illegalize them too, but they just make different ones. Right now, it's 2C-E, 2C-I, and 2C-R. 2C-E is still technically legal, but theres that law in the US that makes it so any chemical that has similar properties to illegal drugs illegal. So federally it's legal, but if they want to, they can still get you.

There will always be drugs, theres no way to avoid it. We just need to rethink or "War on Drugs", or lack-thereof.

 

[tooltiperror]

My whole life I've been taught that weed gives cancer, and is 1000000% worse than nicotine.

ofc not

 

[Jedimindtrixxx]

My whole life I've been taught that weed gives cancer, and is 1000000% worse than nicotine.

ofc not

many things have the possibility of giving cancer. the problem with how they do things is they never technically lie, they just twist the truth.

Also you(not you tooltip you as a general statement) have to realize its decriminalization not legalization.

 

[DDRtists]

My whole life I've been taught that weed gives cancer, and is 1000000% worse than nicotine.

ofc not

Pretty much all views on drugs placed into peoples heads by the government is false, besides the ones with Meth, Heroin, and PCP. Those are *mostly* true, but the way the government portrays drugs such as MDMA, Psilocybin, LSD, and Cocaine isn't how they actually are. It's all scare tactics placed into our minds by the government instead of educating about the harmful effects of drugs. They are still MUCH MUCH worse than drinking and smoking, but they're not as bad as what they make them out to be. The large part of the danger is because they're street drugs, and therefore not regulated. So the chemists can put whatever they please, and do so too, such as meth, rat poision, flour, PMA, speed, DXM and BZP because they don't care if they kill people, they're just out to make a quick buck. If the drugs were legal and regulated, a lot of the harm would be taken out, but the drugs are still super dangerous compared to drinking and smoking even when regulated, just because of the nature of what they do...

 

[tooltiperror]

Cocaine I believe is overdone, but a very real threat. My good friend is a cop and he talks about the things he's seen with coke addicts, just really scares me.

>Meth, Heroi, and PCP
Yeah, I'm going to always stay away from these.

 

[DDRtists]

Cocaine I believe is overdone, but a very real threat. My good friend is a cop and he talks about the things he's seen with coke addicts, just really scares me.

>Meth, Heroi, and PCP
Yeah, I'm going to always stay away from these.

Addicts != Recreational users
I am a recreational user, I do them once every few weeks or so. I do get mild addictions every now and then, but nothing that isn't controllable or that I HAVE to do more. The people that CONSTANTLY do drugs as a get away have other problems, the drugs just help them mess their life up even more, as they have no self control. If you're a stable person and have any self control or self respect, it's really not as "Addictive" as it's made out to be. I've never felt like I HAD to have drugs, and even when I get slight addictive feelings, it's only a couple of minutes and it's not omg-die bad...

Cocaine is expensive, and it doesn't last long. Which is why it's a "rich mans drug", and at the time all you want is more cocaine... Lol
But it makes you feel like there isn't even one problem in your world, and that your life is perfect. That is why it's so mentally addicting, because everything is awesome and life is amazing. So if you're in a shitty place, I could see where you could get mentally addicted to the utter feeling of euphoria, because everything is awesome and perfect in life. Most people don't have the self control to deal with that, because even with it illegal, most people don't have the control and it's hard to get. If it was in stores and easy to get...

 

[FireCat]

treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

If this really works in long run. I'm not against it. lol

 

[SerraAvenger]

I do drugs, I love drugs, but I am completely against legalizing hard drugs. Sure, there is a LARGE percent of the danger from street drugs being exactly that, they're street drugs. You don't know what they really contain or anything. But even if you get a clean cut of a drug, it still is way easier to mess up than drinking or weed.

There's legalizing and then there's legalizing.

Consider "Everyone can get PCP without any prescription in the local supermarket" and "Once you are addicted to Heroin, and you tried a therapy and it didn't work, you can get cheap, clean heroin in the drug center in your neighbourhood to consume there and only there".

One has the consequences you're talking about. The other dries up the income of big criminal structures, helps people into therapy, helps fight a major problem with drugs (strychnine IS deadly) and may well result in a society where producing and selling drugs is not profitable.

 

[The Helper]

Not just a fluke! Here is an update from last year -

DRUG DECRIMINALISATION IN PORTUGAL: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalised the personal possession of all drugs as part of a wider
re-orientation of policy towards a health-led approach. Possessing drugs for personal use is instead treated as an administrative offence, meaning it is no longer punishable by imprisonment and does not result in a criminal record and associated stigma.1 Drugs are, however, still confiscated and possession may result in administrative penalties such as fines or community service.

Whether such a penalty is applied is decided by district-level panels made up of legal, health and social work professionals, known as ‘Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction’. Where an individual is referred to a Commission for the first time and their drug use is assessed as non-problematic (low risk), the law requires their case to be ‘suspended’, meaning no further action is taken. Fines can be issued for subsequent referrals. Where some problematic trends are identified (moderate risk), brief interventions are proposed — including counselling — but these are non-mandatory. In ‘high risk’ cases, where more serious problematic behaviours and dependence are identified, individuals may receive non-mandatory referrals to specialised treatment services.2

In the vast majority of instances, problematic drug use is not identified, and cases are simply ‘suspended’.3 Individuals referred to the Commissions overwhelmingly view their purpose as helping to reduce use and educate on drug risks.4 They are non-judgemental in nature, and a primary focus is safeguarding the right to health of those referred.5

Importantly, the decriminalisation of personal possession is only one part of broader health-centred drug policy reforms that involve an increased focus on harm reduction and treatment provision.6 By ‘accepting the reality of drug use rather than eternally hoping that it will disappear as a result of repressive legislation’, Portuguese reform allows drugs to be treated as a health, rather than criminal justice, issue.7 The benefits of these reforms, therefore, arise from both decriminalisation itself and the establishment of a wider health-based response to drug problems.

Drug decriminalisation in Portugal: setting the record straight. | Transform

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