Portugal

By ANDREW HANON

Portugal, it turns out, isn't an out-of-control drug haven.

Fears that it would become a magnet for "drug tourists" after decriminalizing all narcotic use in 2001 were groundless, according to a recent study by the U.S.-based Cato Insitute.

The government in Lisbon was pilloried by other members of the European Union when it struck down laws making it a crime to possess small amounts of everything from marijuana to heroin and cocaine.

The move was reportedly denounced as "pure lunacy" in media reports across Europe. Paulo Portas, a Portuguese opposition politician, reportedly warned that such radical decriminalization would draw young partiers from across the globe in search of "sun, beaches and any drug you like."

But according to Glenn Greenwald, the study's author, the streets are not littered with the lost souls of foreigners. In fact, drug use by the locals has declined in the past seven years -- especially among teens. Read more »

While the U. S. turns a blind eye, its 'partner' states are quietly decriminalizing illicit drugs.

By Colby Cosh, National Post
Friday, August 28, 2009

Say, are we still having that debate over whether the United States constitutes an empire? I remember the idea seeming controversial a few years back. In 2009, the whole idea of disagreeing with it seems quaint. But maybe things will look different in a few more years. Empires do not rise and fall monotonically; they expand and contract, relax and relent. In an extraordinary turn of events, Caesar has temporarily turned a blind eye to the policing of morals in the provinces, allowing startling drug reforms in two major "partner" states. Read more »

From The Economist print edition

The evidence from Portugal since 2001 is that decriminalisation of drug use and possession has benefits and no harmful side-effects

IN 2001 newspapers around the world carried graphic reports of addicts injecting heroin in the grimy streets of a Lisbon slum. The place was dubbed Europe’s “most shameful neighbourhood” and its “worst drugs ghetto”. The Times helpfully managed to find a young British backpacker sprawled comatose on a corner. This lurid coverage was prompted by a government decision to decriminalise the personal use and possession of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine. The police were told not to arrest anyone found taking any kind of drug. Read more »

Portugal has been the subject of a lot of attention lately over its decriminalization of drug possession. Although decriminalization has been in place for eight years now, it is only this year that it has caught the world's attention. The success of Portugal's approach was the subject of a piece by Salon writer Glenn Greenwald commissioned by the Cato Institute that was widely read and commented on earlier this year, and last week it earned kind words from a most unexpected place: the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which could find little to complain about for its 2009 World Drugs Report.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/portugalmap.gif Read more »

At "The End of the World" I met Maria. Beneath a tent of blankets on a steep bank, surrounded by discarded syringes and blood, she unfolded her foil and proceeded to smoke heroin.

The district in which she lives near Lisbon gained its name and reputation from illegal drugs. But as I sat on a rock and watched her daily ritual, I was aware that Maria is part of an extraordinary and controversial experiment. In almost every other place in the world, what she is doing is crime. Here, though, she can be confident her drug use will not end in prison.

Exactly eight years ago today, on July 1st 2001, Portugal decreed that the purchase, possession and use of any previously-illegal substance would no longer be considered a criminal offence. So, instead of police arresting users, at The End of the World, health and social workers now dispense the paraphernalia of heroin use. Read more »

Appeal-Democrat

Editorials in this newspaper are sometimes accused of being Utopian or ivory-tower in nature because they push ideas critics say are unworkable in the modern world. Sometimes that charge is true, as these pages strive to hold government and individuals to principled behavior, to provide a kind of touchstone to remind people of their rights and responsibilities. One subject on which we're accused of promoting unworkable ideas is the war on drugs.

Well-meaning people charge that drug legalization, or even decriminalization, would lead to an explosion of drug use, and cost millions in lost productivity. Supporters of legalization, on the other hand, believes such a move would be a net benefit to society as users could be kept out of the criminal justice system, lessening the need for expensive prisons. The debate has been going on for years with no real answers in sight. That's no longer the case. Read more »

In an about face, the United Nations on Wednesday lavishly praised drug decriminalization in its annual report on the state of global drug policy. In previous years, the UN drug czar had expressed skepticism about Portugal's decriminalization, which removed criminal penalties in 2001 for personal drug possession and emphasized treatment over incarceration. The UN had suggested the policy was in violation of international drug treaties and would encourage "drug tourism." Read more »

TIME
Sunday, Apr. 26, 2009
By Maia Szalavitz

Pop quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It's not the Netherlands.)

Although its capital is notorious among stoners and college kids for marijuana haze–filled "coffee shops," Holland has never actually legalized cannabis — the Dutch simply don't enforce their laws against the shops. The correct answer is Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Read more »