ALUmnus wrote:Yes, we all know you posted this story so you could convince us of your libertarian ideals. I don't think starting with Pat Roberston was the way to go.
I used Robertson because he pretty much aligns with Liberty...
I like the idea of legalizing the drug because I believe in FREEDOM. I think a little common sense would help out a great deal when it comes to this issue. How many people have died as a result of Marijuana? How many people are in jail because of something as incidental as marijuana?
I am looking at the economics side as well because it is just an added bonus. What is the cost of keeping people in jail for petty drug charges? What is the cost of enforcing the drug war?
Portugal has completely decriminalized drugs for recreational purposes and replaced it with a therapy to help people get off drugs!!
LINK
At the time, critics in the poor, socially conservative and largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate Portugal's drug problem; the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe.
five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
"It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."
Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.
Portugal's case study is of some interest to lawmakers in the U.S., confronted now with the violent overflow of escalating drug gang wars in Mexico. The U.S. has long championed a hard-line drug policy, supporting only international agreements that enforce drug prohibition and imposing on its citizens some of the world's harshest penalties for drug possession and sales. Yet America has the highest rates of cocaine and marijuana use in the world, and while most of the E.U. (including Holland) has more liberal drug laws than the U.S., it also has less drug use.
There is lots of information on the web about drugs....What actually got me started on decriminalizing drugs was from LU's very own Dr. Saxon.
- By LU Armchair coach
- By Sly Fox