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from the stop-treating-medical-issues-as-legal-problems dept.
The old rat-with-drug-laced-water "experiment" is a sham. The only choice the rat in the empty cage has is drinking plain water or drinking drugged water. They never show you a CONTROL where there is a rat with a cage full of cool rat toys and rat friends.
Johann Hari reports via Alternet:
The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection. [...] just 17.7 percent of cigarette smokers are able to stop [smoking by] using nicotine patches.
[...]Nearly 15 years ago, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe [...] They decided to do something radically different. They resolved to decriminalize all drugs and transfer all the money they used to spend on arresting and jailing drug addicts and spend it instead on reconnecting them--to their own feelings and to the wider society.
[...]The [sic] most crucial step is to get [addicts] secure housing [as well as] subsidized jobs so they have a purpose in life and something to get out of bed for. I watched as they are helped, in warm and welcoming clinics, to learn how to reconnect with their feelings after years of trauma and stunning them into silence with drugs.
[...]An independent study by the British Journal of Criminology found that, since total decriminalization, addiction has fallen and injecting drug use is down by 50 percent.
[...]The main campaigner against the decriminalization back in 2000 was Joao Figueira, the country's top drug cop. He offered all the dire warnings that we would expect: more crime, more addicts; but when we sat together in Lisbon, he told me that everything he predicted had not come to pass--and he now hopes the whole world will follow Portugal's example.
(Score: 3, Redundant) by Nuke on Friday February 13 2015, @04:15PM
The opposite of addiction is not sobriety.
The opposite of criminal laws is not secure housing and subsidised jobs. They are not mutually exclusive.
It is human connection
I get suspicious when I hear soundbites like that. WTF does that mean?
just 17.7 percent of cigarette smokers are able to stop [smoking by] using nicotine patches
The point being? Is 17.7 supposed to be suprisingly high, suprisingly low, or suprisingly exactly what we would expect?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 13 2015, @04:23PM
Since the percentage is preceded by "just", it's supposed to be low.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday February 13 2015, @05:05PM
The "human connection" part probably refers to the actual experiment that is referred to in TFS where rats were given a choice between an addictive drug and a healthy, interesting environment and mainly preferred the healthy environment and avoided the drugs.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BK on Friday February 13 2015, @05:08PM
This is a key point. Decriminalization might save money, but there is no guarantee as to where that money would be spent. In the US, I can't think of a political group capable of staying the course on something like this for more than a couple of years. The Democrats would try to roll it into one of their *big [wikipedia.org] programs [wikipedia.org]*. The Republicans would probably try to build a carrier... or save the Warthog [jalopnik.com] or try to fix the F-35 [reuters.com] or something. The
LibertariansTea Party would just want a refund since the national government shouldn't be involved [lp.org] in such things.In the end, the money would vanish [npr.org]...
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 13 2015, @07:38PM
(Score: 1) by BK on Friday February 13 2015, @09:57PM
Granted. But to have it AND have whatever else the USAF wants to waste money on this week costs more than just having one or the other.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by frojack on Friday February 13 2015, @09:48PM
Is there any real evidence that ADDICTION has been cut at all?
It seems to me they are controlling crime, but not addiction, since the state is now supplying the drugs.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Touché) by BK on Friday February 13 2015, @09:55PM
Is that a problem? To rephrase, if you were responsible for the choice, would you prefer to have addiction with or without associated criminal behavior?
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2, Informative) by zpma on Friday February 13 2015, @11:58PM
For what it is worth you can read the report from the "General Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD)" whose mission "is to promote the redution of use of psychoactive substances, the prevention of addictive behaviours and the decreasing of dependencies", which points in the direction of a reduction in addiction. http://www.sicad.pt/BK/EstatisticaInvestigacao/Documents/SinopseEstatistica2012_EN.pdf [sicad.pt]
Google reasonably translates the page with the official policy on drugs, (at http://www.sicad.pt/PT/PoliticaPortuguesa/SitePages/Home%20Page.aspx [sicad.pt] )
Googling for "drug use in portugal since decriminalization" also provides information in the same direction.
Again: Decriminalizing is not legalizing! The only drug supplied by the state is metadone, to those that accept a treatment program.
Such treatment is supposed to be "offered" to anyone caught with illegal substances.
(Score: 2) by naubol on Saturday February 14 2015, @06:30AM
It is human connection
I get suspicious when I hear soundbites like that. WTF does that mean?
That you could use some yourself...