Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Blueprint for America?

By now, any reasonable person, including the relatively few sane Republicans, have recognized that minimum mandatory sentencing for nonviolent drug offenders is a disaster. The results have been billions wasted on prison expansions and increases, not decreases, in recidivism rates, and drug wars raging on the US/Mexican border. So, what’s the alternative? Or, at least, an alternative.

An excellent report from the Cato Institute and Glenn Greenwald examines the impact of Portugal’s 2001 decision  to decriminalize the use of illegal drugs,  and reaches the conclusion that this policy has been effective and, in fact, has created many ancillary benefits that perhaps were not expected when it was enacted.

Now,  Portugal did not legalize these substances, they imposed administrative, as opposed to criminal, penalties for personal use. Fines, essentially. Dealing is still illegal and dealt with harshly. The results have been encouraging, to say the least:

Notably, decriminalization has become increasingly popular in Portugal since 2001. Except for some far-right politicians, very few domestic political factions are agitating for a repeal of the 2001 law. And while there is a widespread perception that bureaucratic changes need to be made to Portugal’s decriminalization framework to make it more efficient and effective, there is no real debate about whether drugs should once again be criminalized. More significantly, none of the nightmare scenarios touted by preenactment decriminalization opponents — from rampant increases in drug usage among the young to the transformation of Lisbon into a haven for “drug tourists” — has occurred.

The political consensus in favor of decriminalization is unsurprising in light of the relevant empirical data. Those data indicate that decriminalization has had no adverse effect on drug usage rates in Portugal, which, in numerous categories, are now among the lowest in the EU, particularly when compared with states with stringent criminalization regimes. Although postdecriminalization usage rates have remained roughly the same or even decreased slightly when compared with other EU states, drug-related pathologies — such as sexually transmitted diseases and deaths due to drug usage — have decreased dramatically. Drug policy experts attribute those positive trends to the enhanced ability of the Portuguese government to offer treatment programs to its citizens — enhancements made possible, for numerous reasons, by decriminalization.

…The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success. Within this success lie self-evident lessons that should guide drug policy debates around the world.

The Beast Who Slumbers strongly encourages anyone seriously interested in creating a national drug policy that works, especially policymakers, to read the entire report.  You can just scroll down to the end of the Executive Summary linked above to click on the entire document.

And a hearty El Somnambulo Tip of the Sombrero to Firedoglake’s Oxdown Gazette  for alerting ‘bulo to a potentially impactful story that has been resolutely ignored by the MSM. 

‘Bulo would really appreciate feedback from people who take the time to examine the wealth of  empirical evidence in the report.