I wasn't talking about just meth. I fall under the group of people that believes "That government is best which governs the least, because it's people discipline themselves."

Just a philosophy. As i mentioned before i don't have a background in social engineering. But i do know some history. For instance, prohibition. It made the Capone family very wealthy.

Marijuana supplies about a third of the gang's money, i would guess.

They get rich, because their business is illegal. They don't pay taxes like honest businesses do. This is why they thrive.

Make guns legal, make drugs legal, make prostitution legal. Regulate it, tax it, and see what happens... It would be interesting...

You think people would risk blowing themselves up by making it, if they could simply run to the store and pick some up?

Drugs should be controlled. I don't believe they can be unless they are legalized. Unless of course you have total control of the population...

Like i said earlier. Much research would need to be done. But we would be foolish to rule out this method without proper research wouldn't we? What we are doing obviously isn't working for us right now judging by the stories i am hearing. So what would some other possible solutions to our problem be? And what exactly is our problem?

Friday, 7 July, 2000, 12:04 GMT 13:04 UK


Portugal legalises drug use


The Portuguese Government has voted to decriminalise the consumption of illegal drugs such as cannabis and heroin.
Drug users will now be treated as sick people in need of medical help.


Previously, drug users and those caught in possession of small amounts of banned drugs for personal use faced up to a year's imprisonment.

The sale and trafficking of illegal drugs remain crimes.

Under the new law police will report drug takers to special local authority commissions which will ensure addicts seek treatment.

"The idea is to get away from punishment towards treatment," government spokesman Carlos Borges told Reuters news agency.

The ruling Socialist Party, which is one seat short of an outright parliamentary majority, was backed in the vote by the Communist Party and other left-of-centre parties.

Referendum call

The main conservative opposition party, the Social Democrats, had urged the government to call a referendum on the proposed new law.

Prime Minister Antonio Guterres rejected the referendum idea on the grounds that the change being put forward was not sufficiently sweeping to merit a national vote.

A significant proportion of prisoners in Portugal's jails are there for drug-related offences, but the number of people sentenced simply for possession or consumption is very low.

"It would not be more than a couple of dozen," said one government official.

Portugal becomes the third member of the European Union, after Spain and Italy, to decriminalise the consumption and possession of small quantities of drugs.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/823257.stm

Now!!!!

April 7, 2009


5 Years After: Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results


In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006, according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank.

"Now instead of being put into prison, addicts are going to treatment centers and they're learning how to control their drug usage or getting off drugs entirely," report author Glenn Greenwald, a former New York State constitutional litigator, said during a press briefing at Cato last week.

Under the Portuguese plan, penalties for people caught dealing and trafficking drugs are unchanged; dealers are still jailed and subjected to fines depending on the crime. But people caught using or possessing small amounts—defined as the amount needed for 10 days of personal use—are brought before what's known as a "Dissuasion Commission," an administrative body created by the 2001 law.

Each three-person commission includes at least one lawyer or judge and one health care or social services worker. The panel has the option of recommending treatment, a small fine, or no sanction.

Peter Reuter, a criminologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, says he's skeptical decriminalization was the sole reason drug use slid in Portugal, noting that another factor, especially among teens, was a global decline in marijuana use. By the same token, he notes that critics were wrong in their warnings that decriminalizing drugs would make Lisbon a drug mecca.

"Drug decriminalization did reach its primary goal in Portugal," of reducing the health consequences of drug use, he says, "and did not lead to Lisbon becoming a drug tourist destination."

Walter Kemp, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, says decriminalization in Portugal "appears to be working." He adds that his office is putting more emphasis on improving health outcomes, such as reducing needle-borne infections, but that it does not explicitly support decriminalization, "because it smacks of legalization."

Drug legalization removes all criminal penalties for producing, selling and using drugs; no country has tried it. In contrast, decriminalization, as practiced in Portugal, eliminates jail time for drug users but maintains criminal penalties for dealers. Spain and Italy have also decriminalized personal use of drugs and Mexico's president has proposed doing the same. .

A spokesperson for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy declined to comment, citing the pending Senate confirmation of the office's new director, former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs also declined to comment on the report.



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization

Nifty info there Fanta

Yes, they're addicts. You can't predict what they will do. Also, it'll probably be cheaper if they cook it themselves. Meth addicts can get on the paranoid side. They might not want big brother seeing who they are and how much they use.

I think you will find that happening much less often than it does now. Honestly. If you would risk your life to save a couple bucks you deserve what's coming. Natural selection... Or why not make the process of creating it illegal? There we go... Problem solved...

How do we ever expect humanity to evolve without ever allowing people to make their own choices?

question....IF the legalize meth and a crime is committed (robbery, etc) would them being addicts give them a better defense to get the charges reduced????

HELL NO!!

They are responsible for their actions. Even if their actions made themselves addict first. This is how civilization evolves...

We might at least look at a successful alternative to what we've been doing.
Why not look at one that's a working example and see how it fits?

For those who tout Portugal for decriminalization, lets ship a butt load of tweakers there and see how Portugal does...

I may be 4:20 but I have no sympathy for consumers of white powder. There is a difference and I cannot be convinced they are one in the same. Ritalin is legal (under prescription) and all it did was make me sleepy and psychotic (as in I would kill you given the chance). I was a kid being forced to take legal drugs and 4:20 calmed me right the hell down.

Wanna solve the drug problem? Fix out fu*ked up society! Until then we are going to just go round and round with this issue. Drug abuse is partially escapism. the other part of is it people looking for that next big rush/ thrill. Maybe we should treat base jumping as a illegal drug as well.

"If they want to risk their lives to save a couple of bucks you deserve what's coming"?! Their brain isn't thinking correctly. Their thoughts are no longer their own.

"Natural selection"? I don't care for that kind of talk. These are people's children and they may have children themselves.

It's not happening. I wouldn't want it legalized either. That's **** is BAD BAD BAD. I mean come on, Marijuana is harmless and even it's not even legal....yet.

A interesting documentary about a girl who was on meth and strachted her arm down to the bone.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAuXfcjaLL4&feature=related

A one in a million thing. Doesn't happen often, more often than not they blow themselves up in their motel room or Winnebago.

I'm sure if you walked into a drug rehab clinic they could tell you a million stories of a million people who hurt themselves and others in a million different ways because of meth.

That's sad and real. They have a harm reduction program there too.

Fear,

That's not a one in a million thing.