Awesome News.

[iGas]

Portugal drug experiment pays off

The possession and use of any kind of drug was decriminalised in Portugal eight years ago, despite concerns drug use would increase.

Instead, usage and the number of drug-related deaths have decreased, and the number of people seeking treatment has risen.

Mark Easton reports from Lisbon.

Drug usage have decreased by 10% in Portugal.

:thumbsup:

 

[TruePaige]

War on Drugs = Total Failure.

It should just be done away with.

 

[zerocool84]

Here in Cali I'm all for legalizing weed.

 

[Miramonti]

Fascinating, I had no idea Portugal did that. There is so much money in the so-called 'war on drugs' on the local, federal, and international level (from prevention all the way to prosecution and imprisonment etc.) that if they were legalized, there would be plenty money to instead address additional persons seeking treatment.

 

[Eli]

No shit?! Amazing! :roll:

So infuriating it's unbelievable. The war on drugs is the biggest crock of shit the United States has ever embarked upon. What a waste of money, resources and lives.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

:thumbsup: I highly doubt this will make a difference to the vast anti-drug contingent, but it's at least a little more ammo on our side.

 

[alkemyst]

so 10% just did them to be cool or something.

 

[SunSamurai]

More like 10% didnt fear getting help thinking they would get jailed and finally kicked the habbit.

 

[LTC8K6]

Usage is down, but treatment is increasing?

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
Usage is down, but treatment is increasing?

And its Portugal. With eight whole years of experience. Not to mention, its Portugal, with eight years of experience. After eight years, it paid off in Portugal. :laugh:

 

[StageLeft]

Including hard drugs? Did it have a severe problem before compared to the US?

 

[PokerGuy]

I find it comical that some idiots get all excited about decriminalization. Decriminalization seem to me like a good idea in terms of not wasting tons of resources, crowding jails, reducing crime associated with trafficking etc, but none of that changes the fact that using the stuff is still stupid. I don't want society wasting it's time trying to prevent people from ingesting something, but there's no reason to get all excited about it unless you're one of the morons who use.

 

[edro]

The war on drugs is a HUGE source of income by the government.
Why would they stop it?
Taxing it would net much less in income.

 

[ViviTheMage]

slowly but surely!

 

[Insomniator]

Originally posted by: PokerGuy
I find it comical that some idiots get all excited about decriminalization. Decriminalization seem to me like a good idea in terms of not wasting tons of resources, crowding jails, reducing crime associated with trafficking etc, but none of that changes the fact that using the stuff is still stupid. I don't want society wasting it's time trying to prevent people from ingesting something, but there's no reason to get all excited about it unless you're one of the morons who use.

Yep people that smoke pot are morons :roll:

 

[xSauronx]

i would have sworn we had this thread already

anyway, yeah, decriminlization worked. write your congressperson, maybe in 20 years we can get some sense here.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Yea sure... Portugal = United States

Population of Portugal: 10,676,910
Populationg of USA: 304,059,724

Totally the same :roll:

Not only that, can someone please explain how you get a "Drug Usage Statistic"? It would seem to me that if we new precisely what percentage of our population was using drugs we would be able to catch them...

-Kevin

 

[Insomniator]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Yea sure... Portugal = United States

Population of Portugal: 10,676,910
Populationg of USA: 304,059,724

Totally the same :roll:

Not only that, can someone please explain how you get a "Drug Usage Statistic"? It would seem to me that if we new precisely what percentage of our population was using drugs we would be able to catch them...

-Kevin

Why would knowing how many people are using help us catch them? Go to a big college (rutgers for example) and there are easily.... 1000 people smoking in the college area any given night... go get em!

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
so 10% just did them to be cool or something.

That's a whole other study, but it's more likely that they are addicted and continued to do it because getting treatment involves admitting criminal conduct.

Better to be an addict than an inmate, I suppose.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Insomniator

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Yea sure... Portugal = United States

Population of Portugal: 10,676,910
Populationg of USA: 304,059,724

Totally the same :roll:

Not only that, can someone please explain how you get a "Drug Usage Statistic"? It would seem to me that if we new precisely what percentage of our population was using drugs we would be able to catch them...

-Kevin

Why would knowing how many people are using help us catch them? Go to a big college (rutgers for example) and there are easily.... 1000 people smoking in the college area any given night... go get em!

Well how can you accurately make a statement that there has been a 10% decrease if you don't know how many people were doing drugs to begin with. And how can you know how many people were doing drugs to begin with period?

Already took care of 6 people smoking marijuana at my school last year...

-Kevin

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: edro
The war on drugs is a HUGE source of income by the government.
Why would they stop it?
Taxing it would net much less in income.

Having worked on a project for DEA Asset Forfeiture I can verify that the first statement is somewhat true and it is not just at the Federal level.

 

[Pheran]

Not exactly a repost (the article is different), but perhaps it should be merged with this thread.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: Insomniator

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Yea sure... Portugal = United States

Population of Portugal: 10,676,910
Populationg of USA: 304,059,724

Totally the same :roll:

Not only that, can someone please explain how you get a "Drug Usage Statistic"? It would seem to me that if we new precisely what percentage of our population was using drugs we would be able to catch them...

-Kevin

Why would knowing how many people are using help us catch them? Go to a big college (rutgers for example) and there are easily.... 1000 people smoking in the college area any given night... go get em!

Well how can you accurately make a statement that there has been a 10% decrease if you don't know how many people were doing drugs to begin with. And how can you know how many people were doing drugs to begin with period?

Already took care of 6 people smoking marijuana at my school last year...

-Kevin

come on now, people want drugs not common sense.

 

[Insomniator]

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: Insomniator

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Yea sure... Portugal = United States

Population of Portugal: 10,676,910
Populationg of USA: 304,059,724

Totally the same :roll:

Not only that, can someone please explain how you get a "Drug Usage Statistic"? It would seem to me that if we new precisely what percentage of our population was using drugs we would be able to catch them...

-Kevin

Why would knowing how many people are using help us catch them? Go to a big college (rutgers for example) and there are easily.... 1000 people smoking in the college area any given night... go get em!

Well how can you accurately make a statement that there has been a 10% decrease if you don't know how many people were doing drugs to begin with. And how can you know how many people were doing drugs to begin with period?

Already took care of 6 people smoking marijuana at my school last year...

-Kevin

come on now, people want drugs not common sense.

I'm not arguing about the statistics I'm just wondering how knowing X amount of people use drugs would help us catch those people.

For example, you can pretty much assume that many many drugs are being used at every college campus but I never saw any dealers get raided or any users get caught.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Insomniator

Originally posted by: lupi

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: Insomniator

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Yea sure... Portugal = United States

Population of Portugal: 10,676,910
Populationg of USA: 304,059,724

Totally the same :roll:

Not only that, can someone please explain how you get a "Drug Usage Statistic"? It would seem to me that if we new precisely what percentage of our population was using drugs we would be able to catch them...

-Kevin

Why would knowing how many people are using help us catch them? Go to a big college (rutgers for example) and there are easily.... 1000 people smoking in the college area any given night... go get em!

Well how can you accurately make a statement that there has been a 10% decrease if you don't know how many people were doing drugs to begin with. And how can you know how many people were doing drugs to begin with period?

Already took care of 6 people smoking marijuana at my school last year...

-Kevin

come on now, people want drugs not common sense.

I'm not arguing about the statistics I'm just wondering how knowing X amount of people use drugs would help us catch those people.

For example, you can pretty much assume that many many drugs are being used at every college campus but I never saw any dealers get raided or any users get caught.

Well in order to count how many people, you need to actually see the people to count.

Or - In order to get a rough estimate, you need to see a group of people to estimate based on. Otherwise, it seems to me that we are just pulling some numbers from somewhere.

-Kevin