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Drug Laws and Drug Abuse: Healthcare vs. Punishment: What Makes More Sense? The Policy Debate on Drug Decriminalization: Portugal as a Model for the USA?

By Andis Kaulins

Solutions to the drug problem? Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Jail and prison punishments for drug possession and abuse are not working and have not worked for decades, and yet there are no end to those advocating such sanctions. Men are sheep. Thankfully, there are a few people out there who recognize that modern society must come up with new ways to deal with the ever greater "drug problem" in society.

For example, at Lords of the Blog Lord Norton has some new postings on drug decriminalization:

Decriminalising drug use

Drugs debate continues

and links to a discussion at Speakers' Corner Trust, Forum for Debate, Legalising the Drugs Trade: Reducing Crime or Increasing Addiction?

Baroness Murphy at Lords of the Blog in Drug Policy Debate writes:

"United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has recently issued a discussion paper entitled From Coercion to Cohesion: Treating Drug Dependence through Healthcare, not Punishment. http://www.idpc.net/publications/unodc-from-coercion-to-cohesion-treatment....

It?s time to stop pretending that drugs can be eradicated from our society and adopt a more realistic approach to their use and abuse."

Lord Norton had already posted last year about Decriminalizing drugs and we made a comment there incorporating our LawPundit posting:
USA Drug Policy Flawed : 2.3 Million in Jail or Prison : Limits of the Criminal Sanction : Portugal Leads Way to Legal Reform & Drug Decriminalization.

How can we educate legislators to become smarter and to start to look for other solutions to the drug problem than the failed ones they have been following in the past?

Portugal's decriminalization framework can most certainly be held up as an example for what can be done if legislators develop enough courage to jump over their own shadows. Drugs remain illegal in Portugal and convicted dealers get locked up, but you do not throw people in jail for drug possession or drug abuse. Lauren Frayer reports from Lisbon on August 14, 2010 at AOL News in Is Portugal's Liberal Drug Policy a Model for US?:

"Ten years ago, Portugal had some 100,000 heroin addicts -- about 1 percent of its entire population. HIV infections from injecting drugs were among the highest in Europe.

Now the addict count has been cut nearly in half. HIV infections from drug use have fallen more than 90 percent. And the policy shift responsible for such a dramatic improvement in Portuguese life is something U.S. lawmakers -- watching an escalating drug war on their southern border -- might consider worthy of some attention: decriminalization....

"The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success," according to a 2009 report from Washington-based Cato Institute ....

The U.S. has long championed a fierce law enforcement policy toward drugs, but it still has some of the highest rates of drug use in the world, and more than a quarter of its prison inmates are behind bars for drug-related offenses. Per capita, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have smoked marijuana."

FACTS speak louder than THEORIES.

Full post as published by LawPundit on August 26, 2010 (boomark / email).