[Vision2020] What Happened When Portugal Decriminalized Drugs?

[Kenneth Marcy]

This link is a video from the Young Turks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unu-sbtp65A&feature=g-all-f

Be sure to click on the Show More button under the video to see this 
paragraph and the links below it:

"The government in Portugal has no plans to back down. Although the 
Netherlands is the European country most associated with liberal drug 
laws, it has already been ten years since Portugal became the first 
European nation to take the brave step of decriminalizing possession of 
all drugs within its borders—from marijuana to heroin, and everything in 
between. This controversial move went into effect in June of 2001, in 
response to the country's spiraling HIV/AIDS statistics. While many 
critics in the poor and largely conservative country attacked the sea 
change in drug policy, fearing it would lead to drug tourism while 
simultaneously worsening the country's already shockingly high rate of 
hard drug use, a report published in 2009 by the Cato Institute tells a 
different story. Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted 
the research, told Time: "Judging by every metric, drug 
decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success. It has 
enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem 
far better than virtually every other Western country."

Read more:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/151635/ten_years_ago_portugal_legalized_all_drugs_--_what_happened_next 



Ken