Decriminalization in Portugal
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Decriminalization in Portugal
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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Moses Botbol
- Posts: 6037
- Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2006 7:38 am
- Location: Boston, USA
Re: Decriminalization in Portugal
Should be no surprise; there was a similar trend on drug abuse rates lowering in the Netherlands; both countries with much lower abuse rates than USA.
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Peter W. Meek
- Posts: 1087
- Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:00 pm
- Location: SE Michigan
Re: Decriminalization in Portugal
I think they are on the right track. As a person with Libertarian/SI leanings, getting the government out of managing people's lives will always appeal to me.
However I do wonder about the numbers. It may be that there is some confusion between drug use and drug abuse, especially when the police forces (and paid informants) are no longer actively searching for drug users.
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Some other points on the subject:
There are a LOT of people with huge vested interests in keeping a war on drugs continuing (just as any war creates jobs and people who want to keep/expand them). The fact seems to escape almost everyone that we would all have a higher standard of living if these drug-warriors were doing jobs that "increased the size of the pie". No one can eat, wear, or live in the "products" generated by warriors, yet they earn money and want to buy such products. Some warriors (soldiers/police) are certainly needed, and the rest of us must support them. That is, most of the population must work at jobs that DO create food, clothing, shelter, and all the incidentals that we take for granted. Fewer warriors/more producers means more pie per person. (Distribution of the pie is another subject entirely.)
There are also certain other people who will really fight against the end of the war on drugs and who are not immediately obvious: the people who are the objects of this war - those who now organize the production and delivery of the drugs, at war-inflated prices. There will suddenly be a very large world-spanning group of criminally-inclined people with jobs that no longer pay insane wages. As long as it is only a few small countries that close down the war on drugs, the criminals can go elsewhere and sell their products elsewhere. If the USA or the EU were to decriminalize drugs there would be a newly unemployed group with organizational abilities and criminal inclinations. (Why does this seem familiar in the US?) Beware of unintended consequences!
There will also be a large group of people who have previously derived their income from wealthier countries, and must now figure some new way to earn replacement income (preferably by increasing the 'size of the pie'). There needs to be serious thought given to how the world will deal with these people. It may not be palatable to support those former poppy growers and coca harvesters during the transition, but the alternative is worse.
However I do wonder about the numbers. It may be that there is some confusion between drug use and drug abuse, especially when the police forces (and paid informants) are no longer actively searching for drug users.
-------------------------------------
Some other points on the subject:
There are a LOT of people with huge vested interests in keeping a war on drugs continuing (just as any war creates jobs and people who want to keep/expand them). The fact seems to escape almost everyone that we would all have a higher standard of living if these drug-warriors were doing jobs that "increased the size of the pie". No one can eat, wear, or live in the "products" generated by warriors, yet they earn money and want to buy such products. Some warriors (soldiers/police) are certainly needed, and the rest of us must support them. That is, most of the population must work at jobs that DO create food, clothing, shelter, and all the incidentals that we take for granted. Fewer warriors/more producers means more pie per person. (Distribution of the pie is another subject entirely.)
There are also certain other people who will really fight against the end of the war on drugs and who are not immediately obvious: the people who are the objects of this war - those who now organize the production and delivery of the drugs, at war-inflated prices. There will suddenly be a very large world-spanning group of criminally-inclined people with jobs that no longer pay insane wages. As long as it is only a few small countries that close down the war on drugs, the criminals can go elsewhere and sell their products elsewhere. If the USA or the EU were to decriminalize drugs there would be a newly unemployed group with organizational abilities and criminal inclinations. (Why does this seem familiar in the US?) Beware of unintended consequences!
There will also be a large group of people who have previously derived their income from wealthier countries, and must now figure some new way to earn replacement income (preferably by increasing the 'size of the pie'). There needs to be serious thought given to how the world will deal with these people. It may not be palatable to support those former poppy growers and coca harvesters during the transition, but the alternative is worse.
--Pete
(Sesquipedalian Man)
(Sesquipedalian Man)