Although I think there are some interesting points about Portugal's difference in size and culture from the United States, I find the Economist's argument backed up with Time's article's statistics to be very convincing. As the Times article states and I agree with, the war on drugs has always been a war against fear. I think it is much more rational to view the drug problem as a health problem instead of a crime problem. The war on drugs also doesn't sit well with me because it creates an us vs. them mentality that is very parallel to race and poverty comparisons. Statistics have shown that drugs to do not discriminate against races or socio-economic groups. Although I find it very important to not take a color blind mentality here and think that drugs proportionally affect all people the same, I think it is absolutely vital to just take a step back and realize that every drug addict or just recreational user is a human being just like us. Whether they are suffering with an addiction, just trying to cope with life by escaping to a high, or just experimenting with drugs for the first time, they are not monsters that the drug war has portrayed them to be. They are human beings that may be making the most rational decisions available to them in their circumstance by using or selling drugs. I do believe in justice and punishing those who commit violent crimes and harm others, but especially if a drug user is just hurting themselves, why do we criminalize them instead of trying to help them?
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Drug Decriminalization
The Economist's article on the decriminalization of drugs instantly made me think of a documentary or show on PBS I saw a few years ago on Portugal's drug policy. I could not find this documentary online but found a link from Times Magazine discussing the issue- http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html
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Jackson, I completely agree with you. We need to be more open to the idea of treatment and assistance for addicts and those affected by the vices of our materialistic society. This article makes an interesting argument. The complete decriminalization of drugs reminds me a lot of the argument to lower the drinking age and I think I have a similar response to both though. The idea of lowering the drinking age to 18 has been tossed around a lot among my friends, especially when we were not of age. However, I kept coming back to thinking about what would actually happen if we just lowered the drinking age to 18 immediately. All I saw was CHAOS! Car accidents, high schoolers running around like crazy, raging alcohol abusers, police filling jails with drunken offenders. Pretty much everyone within 3 years of 18 would be going absolutely nuts. While I definitely think this craziness would calm down eventually, it would take at least 10 years for the culture of binge-drinking (which is the argument for lowering the age in the first place) to subside and a healthier/more european culture of social drinking to win out. The positive effects would show up, but only after years of chaos. I think this is exactly what would happen to countries where drugs become decriminalized. The benefits of taxation and what not would show up, but we would have to deal with years and years of increased addiction, crime, and abuse to get there. I think we've set a standard, probably a bad one, but sliding back off of it will prove to be difficult, if not impossible. The political implications alone would stop a decriminalization project in its tracks. But, time will tell.
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