Posted on 07/05/2011 8:11:24 AM PDT by Nachum
Ten years ago this month, Portugal rejected the conventional approach to drug policy–more laws, stiffer prison sentences, more police–and went the other way by decriminalizing all drugs, even cocaine and heroin. The drug warriors predicted a disaster. They said drug use would spike and there would be a public health crisis. That did not happen. As Glenn Greenwald showed in a 2009 Cato report, Portugal is doing better than before and in many respects is doing better than other countries in the European Union
(Excerpt) Read more at cato-at-liberty.org ...
Impossible!!!!!
We MUST empower the police to make warrantless, no-knock midnight raids on the wrong addresses, shooting family dogs, and pointing guns at childrens’ heads just in case somebody tries to flush a toilet!!!!
If we don’t...well...it’s for the children!
” Thanks to the Huffington Post for the pointer.” ?????
The children won't need any sort of freedom at all. They've been taught that personal responsibility is cruel and inhumane. Besides, they're alrady so much in debt that freedom no longer has any meaning. ;-)
America is not Portugal.....sorry, but decriminalizing won’t do this country any good....
FTI..there was a thread here inthe last few days..think it was from the LA Times, that cops in Cal are seeing many MORE serious traffic accidents because of peopel using medical marijuana and driving..In one case..someone who was stoned and killed a person wasn’t even charged..
Well there's a pile of "settled science". ;-)
The other thing the people screaming “Look at Portugal!” don’t realize is that de-criminalization is not legalization. Instead of facing criminal proceedings for possession you face civil proceedings. You can still be fined and still be ordered into rehab, you just won’t be put in jail.
If someone wants to be a heroin addict then I say give them all the want~!!!!
We should have a FEDERAL WELFARE PROGRAM for heroin distribution, for those poor needy people who cannot afford it.
Give them a boatload and the problem will quickly take care of itslef.
The only thing that prevents most heroin addicts from killing themselves with it is that they run out of heroin or money
Just let the states decide and get the Federal Government out of it.
BS.
The research is hiding all the evidence and has a point to make. If you think otherwise, you are quite gullible.
I too, can generate a report that says if every one carried a firearm 100% of the time, no one would ever need them. A null hypothesis at best.
I was a cop in the military, my friends in the reserves were all cops, my son is a NY State Trooper, I have worked for many police agencies doing computer software-
They ALL say the same thing- they never busted up a domestic with potheads- it is alcohol that is many times worse.
Yes you will find the pothead who drives- duh... just like alcoholics
But in general it is way less harmful than alcohol
EVERYTHING IN MODERATION!!!
Too much pot is really bad for you, just like too much alcohol
You be correct, there is no comparison between All Controlled substances and Alcohol. Alcohol is by far the most Dangerous Drug in the world, and is the only drug that should be illegal, if we are going to make things illegal.
Excellant point, but reality falls on deaf ears for those who continue to be at the forefront of the WOD (eg, Bill Bennet) and the economy that is the WOD.
Or those “conservatives’ who are for personal responsibility and getting the govt out of major social engineering projects EXCEPT when it comes to marijuanna...then science, logic or even the possibility of a discussion to more effectively handle the problem is off limits.
I went to the Cato study and didn't see any hypothesis testing going on... let alone anyone trying to prove a null hypothesis.
I was in Portugal for three weeks in May, and never saw or smelled one instance of drug use.
That’s considerably better than my hometown here in Oregon, where my neighbor grows it, the kids at the mall smoke it, and the Mexicans in the hills will kill you over it.
Agreed. Which means data, controls and methodolgy is not likely available for review. The first thing I look for in research reports is peer-reveiw comments. If absent, I skim it, looking ofr indicators of generalizationa nd lack of serious rigor. Most often, researchers do not like to report the theorem the study is based on is void, meaning the data led them elsewhere than what they wanted it to.
If a chemist or engineer did that, they would probably injure themselves in the resultant lab blast and fire, but social science is mostly based on self-reported evidence, therefore, it is unproveable-hence the “pragmatic”, a blend of scientific and assessment beased models, usually heavy empahsis on thee later and distincly absent of the former methodolgy- ask the subject/database only what you want them to reply to rather than studying the evidence on its own merits.
Scientific method is so unfeeling, and all.
Isn’t Portugal another one of those countries that’s flat broke?
Since heroin and cocaine are controlled for “public safety”, then why are tobacco and alcohol not?
Could it be that the gubmint gets too much income from the tobacco/alcohol industry in taxes and kickbacks?
The gross hypocrisy of it all is disgusting. How did prohibition fail where the WOD is succeeding?
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