YouTube Description:
"The government in Portugal has no plans to back down. Although the Netherlands is the European country most associated with liberal drug laws, it has already been ten years since Portugal became the first European nation to take the brave step of decriminalizing possession of all drugs within its borders—from marijuana to heroin, and everything in between. This controversial move went into effect in June of 2001, in response to the country's spiraling HIV/AIDS statistics. While many critics in the poor and largely conservative country attacked the sea change in drug policy, fearing it would lead to drug tourism while simultaneously worsening the country's already shockingly high rate of hard drug use, a report published in 2009 by the Cato Institute tells a different story. Glenn Greenwald, the attorney and author who conducted the research, told Time: "Judging by every metric, drug decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success. It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/151635/ten_years_ago_portugal_legalized_all_drugs_--_what_happened_next 
8 Comments
VoodooVAmerican pundits have been bashing everything Europe does regardless of what the facts are for decades. Why would yet another fact deter them now?
Once again, facts and logic do not work on people who reject facts and logic.
I might disagree with legalizing all drugs too, but de-criminalizing the soft stuff is an obvious first step
bobknight33u beat me by 2 1/2 hours.
YogiThere's nothing to say, America is run by the least among us.
renatojjsays...@VoodooV I think "they" bash mostly socialist policies coming from Europe, but decriminalizing drugs would not qualify as socialism, quite the opposite, it's freedom of choice, personal responsability.
ObsidianStormWell, duh.
On a related note, it's interesting to me that, with more than 15 years of legalized medical marijuana in the US (California being the first in 1996), you would think that the the opponents to relaxation of the drug laws would have mountains of evidence to back up their claims of social armageddon (at least with respect to marijuana).
But, of course this isn't the case, demonstrating in sharp relief the fact that the drug war is nothing but a huge business enterprise with strong interests perpetuating an ongoing persecution of our citzenry for the profits of said interests.
Fuckin' ridiculous.
Quboid>> ^renatojj:
@VoodooV I think "they" bash mostly socialist policies coming from Europe, but decriminalizing drugs would not qualify as socialism, quite the opposite, it's freedom of choice, personal responsability.
No, they bash things from Europe after being told that they're socialist policies. To determine whether or not they actually are socialist you have to look at logic and facts, but as looking at logic and facts is its self socialist/atheist (same thing), then questioning Fox/God/GOP/Limbaugh is socialist. And you don't want to be a socialist, do you? No. Then shut up and believe what you're told.
curiousityAs usual, this clip and the article's headline confuse decriminalization with legalization. They are not the same.
EMPIREsays...Portugal's going through a rough patch right now.
Fortunately there's some stuff we can be proud of.
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