So how does all this compare with what’s going on elsewhere in the world? Twelve years ago, Portugal became the first country in Europe to state explicitly that there would be no criminal implications for small amounts of drug use (including heroin, cocaine and MDMA) – albeit other countries such as the Netherlands have also had a more ‘relaxed’ approach. Recent thinking has deemed the experiment broadly a success, with João Goulão, a doctor who is also the head of Portugal’s national anti-drug program, claiming that ‘decriminalisation has not made the (drug) problem worse’[7]; indeed, eight years after the move, Portugal found itself with the lowest rates of marijuana usage in people over 15 in the EU: about 10% (compared with 40% of people over 12 who regularly smoke pot in the U.S.); and furthermore, drug use of all kinds had declined in the country.[8] It is important to note though that this does not mean that small time pot users are simply left alone – if stopped by the police for possession, it is still necessary to go through a process of talking to social workers and psychologists to establish the level of use, and work out if the individual is ‘at risk’. In other words, drug use is treated as a medical and social issue, rather than a criminal one, a move that in itself has shown the economic benefits of spending money that would previously have been spent in processing users as criminals, and diverting that money into public health and prevention. occupynewsnetwork.co.uk/the-colorado-experiment-reefer-madness-or-just-plain-common-sense/ DA
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 12:50:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015