"14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs, Here's What Portugal Looks Like In 2001, the Portuguese government did something that the United States would find entirely alien. After many years of waging a fierce war on drugs, it decided to flip its strategy entirely: It decriminalized them all.
If someone is found in the possession of less than a 10-day supply of anything from marijuana to heroin, he or she is sent to a three-person Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, typically made up of a lawyer, a doctor and a social worker. The commission recommends treatment or a minor fine; otherwise, the person is sent off without any penalty. A vast majority of the time, there is no penalty.
Fourteen years after decriminalization, Portugal has not been run into the ground by a nation of drug addicts. In fact, by many measures, it's doing far better than it was before. (...) By 1999, nearly 1% of the population was addicted to heroin, and drug-related AIDS deaths in the country were the highest in the European Union, according to the New Yorker.
But by 2001, the country decided to decriminalize possession and use of drugs, and the results have been remarkable. Drug use has declined overall among the 15- to 24-year-old population, those most at risk of initiating drug use, according to Transform.
There has also been a decline in the percentage of the population who have ever used a drug and then continue to do so. Drug-induced deaths have decreased steeply. HIV infection rates among injecting drug users have been reduced at a steady pace, and has become a more manageable problem in the context of other countries with high rates. And a widely cited study published in 2010 in the British Journal of Criminology found that after decriminalization, Portugal saw a decrease in imprisonment on drug-related charges alongside a surge in visits to health clinics that deal with addiction and disease.
Not a cure but certainly not a disaster: Many advocates for decriminalizing or legalizing illicit drugs around the world have gloried in Portugal's success. They point to its effectiveness as an unambiguous sign that decriminalization works."
You are so right, Randy! Love never fails! God loved us when we were, humanly speaking, unlovable. He made that choice! We must make that choice, also. 1 Corinthians 13
I am truly curious though, and my questions come as a result of a recent piece I heard on the radio. This is in no way meant to be disparaging.
For the long term prisoners, past a point, how compassionate is the release? Truly.
I'll use the example of a 75 year old man who has been in cpsince his 20's. At this point, it is very clear that any recidivism is probably approaching the probability of zero. But, the person that is shoved on the streets would seem to me (an outsider) to have nothing beyond the freedom it self going for them. Without contributing to social security, that man has no form of income besides the state. Medicare/Medicaid is a crap shoot for senior citizens to my mind (I worked in nursing homes for a long time), and the way that population is treated is often quite poor,
Does there come a point for a prisoner when the life inside is actually preferred to the unknown outside (and again, this is true curiosity, I do. It mind being educated)
I correspond with a man on these blogs who murdered a friend in cold blood, chopped him to pieces and desecrated the corpse. He's in his 40's now, and thinks he deserves a chance out side the walls. I disagree, as prison is literally all he has known.
RSS
In 2001, the Portuguese government did something that the United States would find entirely alien. After many years of waging a fierce war on drugs, it decided to flip its strategy entirely: It decriminalized them all.
If someone is found in the possession of less than a 10-day supply of anything from marijuana to heroin, he or she is sent to a three-person Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, typically made up of a lawyer, a doctor and a social worker. The commission recommends treatment or a minor fine; otherwise, the person is sent off without any penalty. A vast majority of the time, there is no penalty.
Fourteen years after decriminalization, Portugal has not been run into the ground by a nation of drug addicts. In fact, by many measures, it's doing far better than it was before. (...)
By 1999, nearly 1% of the population was addicted to heroin, and drug-related AIDS deaths in the country were the highest in the European Union, according to the New Yorker.
But by 2001, the country decided to decriminalize possession and use of drugs, and the results have been remarkable.
Drug use has declined overall among the 15- to 24-year-old population, those most at risk of initiating drug use, according to Transform.
There has also been a decline in the percentage of the population who have ever used a drug and then continue to do so. Drug-induced deaths have decreased steeply.
HIV infection rates among injecting drug users have been reduced at a steady pace, and has become a more manageable problem in the context of other countries with high rates. And a widely cited study published in 2010 in the British Journal of Criminology found that after decriminalization, Portugal saw a decrease in imprisonment on drug-related charges alongside a surge in visits to health clinics that deal with addiction and disease.
Not a cure but certainly not a disaster: Many advocates for decriminalizing or legalizing illicit drugs around the world have gloried in Portugal's success. They point to its effectiveness as an unambiguous sign that decriminalization works."
Love never fails!
God loved us when we were, humanly speaking, unlovable. He made that choice!
We must make that choice, also.
1 Corinthians 13
I am truly curious though, and my questions come as a result of a recent piece I heard on the radio. This is in no way meant to be disparaging.
For the long term prisoners, past a point, how compassionate is the release? Truly.
I'll use the example of a 75 year old man who has been in cpsince his 20's. At this point, it is very clear that any recidivism is probably approaching the probability of zero. But, the person that is shoved on the streets would seem to me (an outsider) to have nothing beyond the freedom it self going for them. Without contributing to social security, that man has no form of income besides the state. Medicare/Medicaid is a crap shoot for senior citizens to my mind (I worked in nursing homes for a long time), and the way that population is treated is often quite poor,
Does there come a point for a prisoner when the life inside is actually preferred to the unknown outside (and again, this is true curiosity, I do. It mind being educated)
I correspond with a man on these blogs who murdered a friend in cold blood, chopped him to pieces and desecrated the corpse. He's in his 40's now, and thinks he deserves a chance out side the walls. I disagree, as prison is literally all he has known.
Am I in the wrong here?