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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'This Is Working': Portugal, 12 Years after Decriminalizing Drugs
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/evaluating-drug-decriminalization-in-portugal-12-years-later-a-891060.htmlBefore he got involved in the global war on drugs, João Goulão was a family physician with his own practice in Faro, on Portugal's Algarve coast. Arriving in his small office in Lisbon, the 58-year-old tosses his jacket aside, leaving his shirt collar crooked. He looks a little tired from the many trips he's taken lately -- the world wants to know exactly how the experiment in Portugal is going. Goulão is no longer able to accept all the invitations he receives. He adds his latest piece of mail to the mountain of papers on his desk.
From this office, where the air conditioning stopped working this morning, Goulão keeps watch over one of the world's largest experiments in drug policy.
One gram of heroin, two grams of cocaine, 25 grams of marijuana leaves or five grams of hashish: These are the drug quantities one can legally purchase and possess in Portugal, carrying them through the streets of Lisbon in a pants pocket, say, without fear of repercussion. MDMA -- the active ingredient in ecstasy -- and amphetamines -- including speed and meth -- can also be possessed in amounts up to one gram. That's roughly enough of each of these drugs to last 10 days.
These are the amounts listed in a table appended to Portugal's Law 30/2000. Goulão participated in creating this law, which has put his country at the forefront of experimental approaches to drug control. Portugal paved a new path when it decided to decriminalize drugs of all kinds.
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'This Is Working': Portugal, 12 Years after Decriminalizing Drugs (Original Post)
xchrom
Mar 2013
OP
Scuba
(53,475 posts)1. Yeah, but how are they doing with the only metric that really matters ...
... that being profitability in the private prison sector? Huh? Huh?
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)2. Some
sanity erupts from time to time in a crazy world. Freedom like that is the last thing you are going to see in a country like ours where the concept of freedom trumps the reality of living as such.
Now, crushing blows from the dominant Empire in ... 3 ... 2 ... 1.
Drugs and weapons, (licit and illicit) are the two of the biggest industries on the planet and combined, are the most valuable assets and form trade for the PTB. I wonder if that is going go change?
Good luck to Portugal, there is a lot of big money bet against this experiment and dead set against the threats it poses.