Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
they had tried various drugs increased a little (possibly because it is more comfortable to
admit drug use when it's legal), but there was no significant change in routine use rates
from the time when drugs were illegal. While use rates increased shortly after the new law
went into effect, it dropped back down a few years later; similar use increases in Italy and
Spain during this same time period suggest that the brief spike was unrelated to the new
law. And drug use among adolescents actually declined.
Portugal now has half as many addicts, fewer people with HIV, and more people in
treatment. The police, now freed up to focus on violent crime, appreciate the measure.
The burden on Portugal's prisons and criminal system has lessened. And the relationship
between the Portuguese government and its drug-using population went from adversarial
to advocate. Ten years later, even former opponents of the law agreed that its benefits far
outweigh its harms. Decriminalized drugs will continue to be Portuguese law of the land.
Every society needs to find its own solutions, and not every solution is a good fit for
every society. But it is good to learn from other societies who are thinking out of the box
to deal with problems that also plague our society. And Portugal's Law 30 certainly has
drug policy experts paying attention.
With the thought-provoking success stories in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Portugal,
why don't more countries take a chance on experimenting with their drug laws? Simply
put, they're afraid of US retribution. The United States, by way of the United Nations, has
rigged the system to prevent change: If a country legalizes, it risks being “decertified” by
the UN. This means it's disqualified from receiving foreign aid, and the US Congress is
required to vote against them in trade policies—effectively sparking an expensive trade
war. Even the United States' own drug czar is required by our government to vote to keep
drugs illegal.
Europe has come up with clever ways around this. That's why you hear about
“decriminalization” rather than “legalization.” It's all about exploiting loopholes: Many
European countries have anti-marijuana laws on the topics, but choose not to enforce
them. Even in the Netherlands, marijuana is still technically “illegal”; they've just legis-
lated themselves around those laws (permitting the “gray area” of the law). Europe wants
science over ideology.
Wealthy countries who want to legalize can tinker around this way because if they go
too far, they can absorb the potential cost of a trade war with the USA. But poor countries,
scraping to get by, simply can't afford the risk of trade sanctions and must carefully toe the
line. In 2012, several Latin American countries (including Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatem-
ala, El Salvador, and Colombia) began talking about the wisdom of taking the crime out
