Portugal decriminilized drugs, abuse dropped by 50%

[Pinky]

Economists on Drugs.

There's also This.

[Turdacious]

What's the point of decriminalizing it? Making it legal or "not illegal" doesn't do a thing to stop junkies from abusing. All it does it cut down on the expenses of pursuing and prosecuting druggies. It's not like a crack addict is going to stop sucking dicks for a hit just because the cops turn a blind eye to it.

Well obviously you're wrong.

How do you figure?

You take the money out of enforcement and incarceration and put it into treatment.

It doesn't work like that. Treatment has low success rates; centers tend to be poorly managed; has low rates of self referral; and lacks political popularity (especially compared to the current law enforcement/ criminalization model).

The business models of treatment, and treatment funding would have to change significantly to make your solution effective-- that's easier said than done. AA is a successful model, but it's unpopular in many sectors because of it's religious basis.

[Pinky]

What's the point of decriminalizing it? Making it legal or "not illegal" doesn't do a thing to stop junkies from abusing. All it does it cut down on the expenses of pursuing and prosecuting druggies. It's not like a crack addict is going to stop sucking dicks for a hit just because the cops turn a blind eye to it.

Well obviously you're wrong.

How do you figure?

You take the money out of enforcement and incarceration and put it into treatment.

It doesn't work like that. Treatment has low success rates; centers tend to be poorly managed; has low rates of self referral; and lacks political popularity (especially compared to the current law enforcement/ criminalization model).

Incarceration has an even lower success rate.

[Kraj 2.0]

Incarceration has an even lower success rate.

Not if your goal is to do 50 single-arm pull-ups.