Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Portugal


Did you know that Portugal legalized the use and sale of all previously illegal drugs in 2001? Drug use actually went down and the crime rate dropped. Portugal did not become a drug haven.
Thomas Jefferson said, "If people let the government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry state as those who live under tyranny"

4 comments:

mud_rake said...

Just think of how many lives are lost here in the states because someone got caught with a joint or a rock of crack.

microdot said...

Actually, I wonder how many lives are lost world wide because of the insatiable market in America for illegal drugs.
The next logical step is to look at the insane increase in opiate addiction in Afghanistan since the Amwrican Invasion.
I wrote last year about the creation of the opium industry in Afghanistan where it virtually did not exist before the CIA got involved during the Russian occupation.

And then again, I don't really believe that America will ever be really sane or logical enough to deal with its own drug problem and layers of hypocrisy.
It's a White/Puritan/denial thang....
Drugs are the whitemans burden...

Laci the Chinese Crested said...

It isn't sane enough to deal with its gun problem, what makes you think it can deal with the drug problem.

The problem is that there is too much money in the law enforcement end of the drug war (Police, Courts, lawyers, drug testing, the drug dealers themselves, etc.) to end the drug war. These people have a vested interest in keeping the drug war alive even though it makes too much sense to end it.

The money from corruption is enough to keep the drug war alive!

Of course, it would allow for law enforcement to utilise its resources in a far more sensible way. But the money is in keeping the status quo no matter what the cost is to society.

mud_rake said...

Gentlemen- how much do you think it would cost the U.S. Government to 'buy-off' the poppy growers of Afghanistan? As we spend 2 billion/month, I'll bet we could afford $10,000/hectare to convince the poppy grower to grow wheat instead.