In 2001, Portugal became the first country to decriminalise the possession and consumption of all illicit substances. Rather than being arrested, those caught with a personal supply might be given a warning, a small fine, or told to appear before a local commission – a doctor, a lawyer and a social worker – about treatment, harm reduction, and the support services that were available to them.
The opioid crisis soon stabilised, and the ensuing years saw dramatic drops in problematic drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates, overdose deaths, drug-related crime and incarceration rates. HIV infection plummeted from an all-time high in 2000 of 104.2 new cases per million to 4.2 cases per million in 2015. The data behind these changes has been studied and cited as evidence by harm-reduction movements around the globe.
www.theguardian.com/news/2017/de…-copied-it
Fourteen years after decriminalization, Portugal has not been run into the ground by a nation of drug addicts. In fact, by many measures, it’s doing far better than it was before.
mic.com/articles/110344/14-years….yKKleefNe
“Over 85 percent of those who have graduated from our intensive treatment program have not been convicted of new felony offenses for at least three years following graduation. That success rate is consistent with many national studies, which show drug court graduates commit fewer crimes.”
www.mauinews.com/opinion/columns/…ves-saved/
h/t Natura Naturans