A short article about the Portugeese experiment:

Now We Know: Decriminalization DOES Cut Drug Use

"Ten years ago, Portugal took the unprecedented step of decriminalizing all drugs. One decade after this much derided experiment, drug abuse is down by half. Street drug related deaths from overdoses and the rate of HIV cases have crashed."

John Stossel spoke to a chief police inspector in Lisbon who was very dubious about decriminalization at first. But now he’s a convert. He told Stossel, “the level of conflicts on the street are reduced … drug related robberies are reduced … and now police are not the enemies of the consumers.”

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/now-we-k...#ixzz1q9FOWUFj


Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?

"The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled."

"At the Cato Institute in early April, Greenwald contended that a major problem with most American drug policy debate is that it's based on "speculation and fear mongering," rather than empirical evidence on the effects of more lenient drug policies. In Portugal, the effect was to neutralize what had become the country's number one public health problem, he says."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...#ixzz1q9IR3HqY


Legalizing Drugs Decreases Use - Proof In Portugal, Netherlands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDt8NXLs1ws

At some time US was likewise considering this: "In 1972, after an exhaustive study by a team of top experts, President Richard Nixon's hand-picked National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended decriminalization of marijuana. Five years later, President Jimmy Carter and many of his top cabinet officials made the same recommendation to Congress. Both the Commission and the Carter administration felt that the "cure" of imprisonment was worse than the "disease" of marijuana use. U.S. drug control officials argued strenuously that Congress should ignore such recommendations, which it did."

http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/reinarman.dutch.html


I do not know what the position is now on the Democrat's side, but the Republicans want strict measures.

So, would it be a good idea to legalize drugs in more countries, in an attempt to handle the problem and also free police resources for other things, or would it make it worse?

Would it be a good idea to legalize trading drugs, in order to stop the drug overlords and their power and influence in many countries and free police resources for other things, or would it make the problems worse?