How To Decriminalize Drugs In Portugal

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As of 2001 the drug policy in Portugal decriminalized all drugs but providing an alternate method to deal with drugs. Portugal's policy states, “no criminal penalties exist for the use or possession of drugs for personal use--defined as a ten-day supply” (Abadinsky 2014:327). Furthermore, the new method of “harm reduction” would focus on treatment and prevention and not criminalizing and jailing people for drug possession. For example, a heroin addict would be able to receive and consume his/her drug and be free of judgement but also be informed of treatment plans available to them, when they want to stop. However, this new policy does not legalize the importation, production or distribution of drugs. Any drug trafficking is a criminal offense and punishable by the laws in Portugal. …show more content…
For instance, panel members, Theodore Dalrymple and Nigel Keegan, revealed the statistic surrounding drug use and crime were misleading and that it has not decreased but increased. Nigel Keegan stated, that crime rate has increased by 17% and murder rate by 40%, since the policy went into effect in 2001. However, this might be true neither of them were able to confirm this increase was due to the new drug policy. In fact, the Theodore Dalrymple mentioned that between 50-200 inmates committed criminal offenses prior to addiction. This led me to believe that the increase in crime was not just due to decriminalization but other unknown factors. Another issue Ian Blair spoke on was that by decriminalizing drugs Portugal made it easy for a dealer to profit without taxation. However, I disagree with his comment because once these dealers get caught they will be
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