Few would argue that treating addicts as criminals has not exactly worked out very well. Our prisons are full of people who should be in treatment for their disease not locked up in prisons designed for a lot fewer inmates than these institutions currently hold. In an excellent report by David Boaz from the Cato Institute he makes the case for why criminalizing drug use has not worked. You can the full report here. What I find most interesting is the statistics he quotes for Portugal who decriminalized all drug use 10 years ago. Boaz Quotes:
“Portugal, whose drug problems were among the worst in Europe, now has the lowest usage rate for marijuana and one of the lowest for cocaine. Drug-related pathologies, including HIV transmission, hepatitis transmission and drug-related deaths, have declined significantly.”
But why worry about facts or proof that the current system does not work that might give our politicians something to think about and we cannot have that since thinking about solutions is not on their job descriptions.
