Portugal, the drug decriminalization success story Oregon followed, now appears to be in trouble
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Portugal decriminalized drugs in 2001, paving the way for Oregon. The early years demonstrated an apparent success story. But a recent Washington Post article suggests the country's positive trends are turning around.
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The lesson is that whether you decriminalize or criminalize drugs what matters more is whether there are enough treatment centers to send drug addicts to when they need it
When they need it? I think the need is immediate. Drug usage trashes the mind and body, rendering their owner poorer than ever, and more of a burden to themselves and those who must live around them. Independence is difficult, if not impossible, when dependence on a ruinous substance is the norm. Eliminating hard drugs altogether is the best remedy.
@@thestyledocumentthat won’t ever happen lol legalize regulate, send street users to rehab, and build up the rahabs around the biggest drug areas legalize testing sites and open mental health clinics then that’s how you stop the war on drugs
@@thestyledocument Well said
@@breachperplex8846 If those supporting de.criminali.sation of dr.gs and vo.luntary trea.tment had kid.s of their own add.ict.ed to dr.gs and poo.r me.ntal he.alth, I bet most would want their kid.s sent to in.volun.tarily dr.g re.hab and me.ntal hospi.tals. These peo.ple also sou.nd like they haven't spent much time around the.se dr.ug us.ers to understand how sev.ere their cond.itions are and how it's now more than ever nearly impossible to get off
You are wrong. Japan and Singapore decriminalize drugs and they have extremely strict drug laws. There arent that many rehab centers in those countries because there are no massive drug problems to begin with. There are no drug cultures in those countries. Some people took it but they have to be extremely discreet. If they get caught it's jail time and some even are sentenced to death. That's how u deal with it. In America people can shoot up crack cocaine in public and nobody can do anything about it. You can build up as many rehabs as u want, but when the number of addicts keep on going up and up, you really can't keep up with it.
For those of us who understand addiction of all kinds, it's really a no brainer. Addictions of all forms have to be monitored and controlled because they end up devastating circles of people and the communities the addict lives in. It is not a right to act irresponsibly. And this addiction is one we are all paying for in some way.
It is a huge captive business in rehab programs, manufacturing naloxone derivatives, transactions of real estates associated with these so-called centers.
I can hear him self-censoring. Why can’t media just be honest?
CLOWNWORLD
Portugal's system may not be perfect,but won't you find anything like skid row in any of it's cities,so Portugal's drug policy still works better than what they implement in the United States
Why do you think that is?
$$$$$$$
And apparently ethics.
Other countries ban toxic chemicals in food & things like disgusting prescription drug commercials, yet it's laid thick here!
There are parts of portugal where needles are left and people are lurched over from using in the streets, it hasn't worked half as well as many claim.
@@TB-us7el still better than the United States,and you need to understand that in Portugal it was extremely bad in the 80's and 90's,it's estimated that 1% of the population was using heroine heavily,since the drug policy changed and drugs were decriminalized all drugs the use and overdoses decreased dramatically
@@renatafilipedasilva4677 use of things other than heroine have increased in Portugal. I'm sure it has improved in some ways, but it is not a magic cure. People present decriminalization as the answer to everything, but I think there are other ways that might be better for many countries. It could be like Pandora's box.
So much for that theory! The pendulum swings again.
It is not true that Portugal fixed the drug problem.
That's why it should be treated like alcohol in the United States and only behind closed doors .. .. if the only problem people have is they don't like seeing the misery of addiction then let's hide it away like we've been doing forever.. That will make it go away
I agree. Deal with the symptoms of drug addiction. The only caveat being that Portugal still has not legalized drugs they have only decriminalized them. Without legalization prices are still dictated by a black market. You don't often see people knocking over a liquor store for the liquor or robbing a bank for booze money. If a day's supply was less than 20 bucks for even your most hardcore addict you wouldn't see much property crime committed to support a habit. At that point if a society was to try to work on job creation ie public works projects and a good social safety net, you wouldn't see a whole lot of the visible side of addiction that we do now.
*❝The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before-not once, but many times, and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.❞*
_〜 Paul Johnson_
You could just say the Portuguese government defunded a working system is the main problem 🤦
Or that it was unsustainable and a bottomless money pit with no advantageous results. The answer isn't to throw more money at it, nor is expecting different outcomes with no change in the approach. Eliminating hard drugs altogether is the best remedy.
@@thestyledocument Nah. Portugal had been struggling economically long before this policy was formulated. If they had the economy of Switzerland, Norway, Sweden or Finland, Portugal will be one of the countries with lowest drug induced rate in the world given how big a difference this policy has made since its introduction in 2001.
@@thestyledocument😂
@@thestyledocumenteliminating hard drug is a bottemless pit. Forced treatment was what helped Portugal… but everyone ignored that part and focused on the legalisation. Now they defunded the program and there is a waiting list for mandatory treatment…
@@thestyledocument "Eliminating hard drugs altogether is the best remedy." The war on drugs has lasted for 5 decades so far. If eliminating drugs was possible, it would have happened already
I love how this news outlet cuts certain things
Detracting from Portland 🤦♂️
Not surprised!
People do it more when they are told they can't. Why are other countries handling problems successfully, but a another can't?
$$$$$$$
So Portugal gvmt cuts in med treatment after 22 yrs/1 generation & it was a political responsibility( like Or in the top 3 states with least preventive health), yikes!!!.
Those cuts were done by corrupted politicians because somehow they have to compensate the millions that banquers and politicians stolen in the past years
What I like is that people are saying this doesn't work, let's try something new. Face it we lost the war on drugs a long time ago.
Granted, as a non-drug user I have to say I'd have been tempted to experiment with drugs if I could have done it in a nice safe environment and not faced societal backlash, or my momma!
If people feel they have the right to use drugs, then I believe anyone who ODs should not receive Narcan or any other emergency medical care.
For me, everything should be legal, regulated by the state (as is the Luxembourg model) as it was in the 19th century. it would reduce a lot of shit that is a bioproduct of illegality itself...
Doesn't look so good regarding drugs because literally thousands of americans moved to Portugal and brought their degeneracy and hedonism with them.
Great way to cherry pick
You have to fund treatment in equal measure and put in case workers who work with the police and other professionals to treat drugs for what they are. A social problem. Not a criminal one. But again, you HAVE to fund treatment. And then cocaine should be produced by pharmaceuticals and kept safe and free from adulterants. People could get their cocaine and other harder drugs from the pharmacy....or a dedicated facility where the product is measured for safety. This is how we can win the drug war. And to this reporter.....you'll always see a spike before the real benefits manifest.
I'm Portuguese and I live in Portugal. I am a former drug addict and I can say that a lot has changed since the 80s/90s. nowadays there are not many heroin users (compared to the past) the consumption of cocaine has increased and the consumption of Cannabis (legal for medical purposes) has increased, both medically and illegally for recreational purposes... and recently LSD , psilocybin and ecstasy were disriminalized for doses up to 5 days...
is it better or worse, just sounds like a sideways step if one type has been replaced by others.
@@TB-us7el For me, everything should be legal, regulated by the state (as is the Luxembourg model) as it was in the 19th century. it would reduce a lot of shit that is a bioproduct of illegality itself....
I doubt you're portuguese. There is no cannabis for medical purposes in Portugal.
Much less the other drugs you mentioned.
Your comment is absolute disinformation bull manure and will get foreigners arrested in Portugal if they think any of it is true.
@@truthismycause2800 yes I am Portuguese and yes Cannabis is legal for medical purposes. It's a shame I can't send you an image of the box that I pick up every month from the pharmacy. Who are you to give an opinion without knowing the reality of the country I live in? Look for it, Cannabis sativa 18 THC / tilrey.... and then you'll see.
Weed isn’t legal there so wonder how much the drug use increase is weed vs hard drugs?
Cannabis is Legal in Oregon.
I'm Portuguese and I live in Portugal. I am a former drug addict and I can say that a lot has changed since the 80s/90s. Nowadays there are not many heroin users (compared to the past) the consumption of cocaine has increased and the consumption of Cannabis (legal for medical purposes) has increased, both medically and illegally for recreational purposes... and recently LSD , psilocybin and ecstasy were disriminalized for doses up to 5 days...
The WP journalistic piece is very bias (considering that one of the journalists works for the most conservative right wing journal in Portugal) to say at least and misses out a lot of vital information: 1st - 2012 the funds were cut? Does anyone knows why? Guess? A huge global financial crisis happened and it hit Portugal hard! Did the journalists mentioned that? 2nd - after that we were hit again with another huge health crisis known as COVID 19! Conclusion: of course a lot public health programs got harmed by these "small" events. In deed contextualization is a dying species in today's "journalism"
Well,without the Infrastructure to deal with all of it, of course it's going to fail. The state fails the people constantly. Constantly.