You often hear Portugal cited when arguing for drug decriminalization. I heard it’s been successful. Oregon on the other hand decriminalized drugs a year ago and overdoses have spiked 40% according to some statistics. Is drug decriminalization all that it’s made up to be? Why did it work on Portugal but not Oregon?
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> You often hear Portugal cited when arguing for drug decriminalization
as a Native this is news, havent really heard said like this.this stuff has been decriminalzied since like what 2001 or so?
as far as i understand its not that all drugs are legal here, but stuff like marijuana isnt criminalized. hard drugs are still very much illegal.you can and will be arrested for possesion here, but instead of jail youll likely be sentenced to rehab(failing that then you’d face jail time).
but the idea of this sort of measure is that this sort of drugs are not considered any more dangerous to the public than the likes of alcohol and tobacco and most of the danger involved with them was caused by the fact you had to procure them illegally(which exposed you to the dangers of having ot deal with some rough people.).
the reason why the measure works here is twofold:
1:because these ” lighter” drugs(including tobacco and alcohol) are legal, they can have taxes charged on them
2:because Portugal has Socialized Healthcare the taxes above are harsh to discourage abuse, but more importantly we also have the proper network and facilites ot manage cases of drug abuse and rehabilitation that can be partly or fully funded by the above taxes.
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