Rather than bankrupting our treasuries, locking more people behind bars than the Chinese and exerting great pressure on Mexicans to ratchet up their drug massacres we could follow the example of Portugal.
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.
Its also worth noting that unlike the Tea Party or the Greeks the Portuguese are facing up to a massive debt without whining or rioting.
