Treat, Don't Punish!

cabbage kid

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/

Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.
Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:

Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.
"There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.
The number of addicts considered "problematic" — those who repeatedly use "hard" drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.
Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.
"This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies."

Many of these innovative treatment procedures would not have emerged if addicts had continued to be arrested and locked up rather than treated by medical experts and psychologists. Currently 40,000 people in Portugal are being treated for drug abuse. This is a far cheaper, far more humane way to tackle the problem. Rather than locking up 100,000 criminals, the Portuguese are working to cure 40,000 patients and fine-tuning a whole new canon of drug treatment knowledge at the same time.
None of this is possible when waging a war.

So it seems that rehabilitaion is working better than punishment in this case. Could this policy be implemented here?

Sindri

We've known this for a while.

You know in Burma where all (drug) offenders are tortured there is practically a 100% relapse.


I think we should do that.


This ain't going to happen though. Even from promising figures we've seen before from Switzerland and Australia that have been around for awhile we still haven't done anything even though there is a financial incentive for doing so and offenders relapse less than when incarcerated.

It's certainly not something FG are going to do.

Jesus Wept

No, there is little or no chance of something progressive being implemented here, especially in relation to drugs.

starbelgrade

I thought this was gonna be an S&M thread.

Disappointed.

cabbage kid

The-Rigger wrote: »

No, there is little or no chance of something progressive being implemented here, especially in relation to drugs.

I completely agree that it won't be implemented, I meant would it work as well here as it has in Portugal in the hypothetical scenario that it was.

I don't see why not but then I don't know much about this so maybe I'm missing something.

Doc Ruby

Great news, I'm glad their experiment worked out so well. They should cut out most of the HSE middle management and put the funds towards countrywide state of the art clinics for this purpose.

Deus Ex Machina

It's often hard to tell that drugs are illegal. I believe they're illegal the way I believed in god when I was 9.