Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options

By Associated Press
Monday, December 27, 2010 13:42 EST

These days, Casal Ventoso is an ordinary blue-collar community — mothers push baby strollers, men smoke outside cafes, buses chug up and down the cobbled main street.

Ten years ago, the Lisbon neighborhood was a hellhole, a “drug supermarket” where some 5,000 users lined up every day to buy heroin and sneaked into a hillside honeycomb of derelict housing to shoot up. In dark, stinking corners, addicts — some with maggots squirming under track marks — staggered between the occasional corpse, scavenging used, bloody needles.

At that time, Portugal, like the junkies of Casal Ventoso, had hit rock bottom: An estimated 100,000 people — an astonishing 1 percent of the population — were addicted to illegal drugs. So, like anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky leap: They decriminalized the use of all drugs in a groundbreaking law in 2000.

Now, the United States, which has waged a 40-year, $1 trillion war on drugs, is looking for answers in tiny Portugal, which is reaping the benefits of what once looked like a dangerous gamble. White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske visited Portugal in September to learn about its drug reforms, and other countries — including Norway, Denmark, Australia and Peru — have taken interest, too.

“The disasters that were predicted by critics didn’t happen,” said University of Kent professor Alex Stevens, who has studied Portugal’s program. “The answer was simple: Provide treatment.”

___

Drugs in Portugal are still illegal. But here’s what Portugal did: It changed the law so that users are sent to counseling and sometimes treatment instead of criminal courts and prison. The switch from drugs as a criminal issue to a public health one was aimed at preventing users from going underground.

Other European countries treat drugs as a public health problem, too, but Portugal stands out as the only one that has written that approach into law. The result: More people tried drugs, but fewer ended up addicted.

Here’s what happened between 2000 and 2008:

_ There were small increases in illicit drug use among adults, but decreases for adolescents and problem users, such as drug addicts and prisoners.

_ Drug-related court cases dropped 66 percent.

_ Drug-related HIV cases dropped 75 percent. In 2002, 49 percent of people with AIDS were addicts; by 2008 that number fell to 28 percent.

_ The number of regular users held steady at less than 3 percent of the population for marijuana and less than 0.3 percent for heroin and cocaine — figures which show decriminalization brought no surge in drug use.

_ The number of people treated for drug addiction rose 20 percent from 2001 to 2008.

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, one of the chief architects of Portugal’s new drug strategy, says he was inspired partly by his own experience of helping his brother beat addiction.

“It was a very hard change to make at the time because the drug issue involves lots of prejudices,” he said. “You just need to rid yourselves of prejudice and take an intelligent approach.”

Officials have not yet worked out the cost of the program, but they expect no increase in spending, since most of the money was diverted from the justice system to the public health service.

In Portugal today, outreach health workers provide addicts with fresh needles, swabs, little dishes to cook up the injectable mixture, disinfectant and condoms. But anyone caught with even a small amount of drugs is automatically sent to what is known as a Dissuasion Committee for counseling. The committees include legal experts, psychologists and social workers.

Failure to turn up can result in fines, mandatory treatment or other sanctions. In serious cases, the panel recommends the user be sent to a treatment center.

Health works shepherd some addicts off the streets directly into treatment. That’s what happened to 33-year-old Tiago, who is struggling to kick heroin at a Lisbon rehab facility.

Tiago, who requested his first name only be used to protect his privacy, started taking heroin when he was 20. He shot up four or five times a day, sleeping for years in an abandoned car where, with his addicted girlfriend, he fathered a child he has never seen.

At the airy Lisbon treatment center where he now lives, Tiago plays table tennis, surfs the Internet and watches TV. He helps with cleaning and other odd jobs. And he’s back to his normal weight after dropping to 50 kilograms (110 pounds) during his addiction.

After almost six months on methadone, each day trimming his intake, he brims with hope about his upcoming move to a home run by the Catholic church where recovered addicts are offered a fresh start.

“I just ask God that it’ll be the first and last time — the first time I go to a home and the last time I go through detox,” he said.

Portugal’s program is widely seen as effective, but some say it has shortcomings.

Antonio Lourenco Martins, a former Portuguese Supreme Court judge who sat on a 1998 commission that drafted the new drug strategy and was one of two on the nine-member panel who voted against decriminalization, admits the law has done some good, but complains that its approach is too soft.

Francisco Chaves, who runs a Lisbon treatment center, also recognizes that addicts might exploit good will.

“We know that (when there is) a lack of pressure, none of us change or are willing to change,” Chaves said.

___

Worldwide, a record 93 countries offered alternatives to jail time for drug abuse in 2010, according to the International Harm Reduction Association. They range from needle exchanges in Cambodia to methadone treatment in Poland.

Vancouver, Canada, has North America’s first legal drug consumption room — dubbed as “a safe, health-focused place where people inject drugs and connect to health care services.” Brazil and Uruguay have eliminated jail time for people carrying small amounts of drugs for personal use.

Whether the alternative approaches work seems to depend on how they are carried out. In the Netherlands, where police ignore the peaceful consumption of illegal drugs, drug use and dealing are rising, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Five Dutch cities are implementing new restrictions on marijuana cafes after a wave of drug-related gang violence.

However, in Switzerland, where addicts are supervised as they inject heroin, addiction has steadily declined. No one has died from an overdose since the program began in 1994, according to medical studies. The program is credited with reducing crime and improving addicts’ health.

The Obama administration firmly opposes the legalization of drugs, saying that it would increase access and promote acceptance, according to drug czar Kerlikowske. The U.S. is spending $74 billion this year on criminal and court proceedings for drug offenders, compared with $3.6 billion for treatment.

But even the U.S. has taken small steps toward Portugal’s approach of more intervention and treatment programs. And Kerlikowske has called for an end to the “War on Drugs” rhetoric.

“Calling it a war really limits your resources,” he said. “Looking at this as both a public safety problem and a public health problem seems to make a lot more sense.”

There is no guarantee that Portugal’s approach would work in the U.S. For one, the U.S. population is 29 times larger than Portugal’s 10.6 million.

Still, an increasing number of American cities are offering nonviolent drug offenders a chance to choose treatment over jail, and the approach appears to be working.

In San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood, Tyrone Cooper, a 52-year-old lifelong drug addict, can’t stop laughing at how a system that has put him in jail a dozen times now has him on the road to recovery.

“Instead of going to smoke crack, I went to a rehab meeting,” he said. “Can you believe it? Me! A meeting! I mean, there were my boys, right there smoking crack, and Tyrone walked right past them. ‘Sorry,’ I told them, ‘I gotta get to this meeting.’”

Cooper is one of hundreds of San Franciscans who landed in a court program this year where judges offered them a chance to go to rehab, get jobs, move into houses, find primary care physicians, even remove their tattoos. There is enough data now to show that these alternative courts reduce recidivism and save money.

Nationally, between 4 and 29 percent of drug court participants will get caught using drugs again, compared with 48 percent of those who go through traditional courts.

San Francisco’s drug court saves the city $14,297 per offender, officials said. Expanding drug courts to all 1.5 million drug offenders in the U.S. would cost more than $13 billion annually, but would return more than $40 billion, according to a study by John Roman, a senior researcher at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center.

The first drug court opened in the U.S. 21 years ago. By 1999, there were 472; by 2005, 1,250.

This year, new drug courts opened every week around the U.S., as states faced budget crises exarcebated by the high rate of incarceration on drug offenses. There are now drug courts in every state, more than 2,400 serving 120,000 people.

Last year, New York lawmakers followed counterparts across the U.S. who have tossed out tough, 40-year-old drug laws and mandatory sentences, giving judges unprecedented sentencing options. Also, the Department of Health and Human Services is training doctors to screen patients for potential addiction, and reimbursing Medicare and Medicaid providers who do so.

Arizona recently became the 15th state in the nation to approve medical use of marijuana, following California’s 2006 legislation.

___

In Portugal, the blight that once destroyed the Casal Ventoso neighborhood is a distant memory.

Americo Nave, a 39-year-old psychologist, remembers the chilling stories his colleagues brought back after Portuguese authorities sent a first team of health workers into the Casal Ventoso neighborhood in the late 1990s. Some addicts had gangrene, and their arms had to be amputated.

Those days are past, though there are vestiges. About a dozen frail, mostly unkempt men recently gathered next to a bus stop to get new needles and swabs in small green plastic bags from health workers, as part of a twice-weekly program. Some ducked out of sight behind walls to shoot up, and one crouched behind trash cans, trying to shield his lighter flame from the wind.

A 37-year-old man who would only identify himself as Joao said he’s been using heroin for 22 years. He has contracted Hepatitis C, and recalls picking up used, bloody needles from the sidewalk. Now he comes regularly to the needle exchange.

“These teams … have helped a lot of people,” he said, struggling to concentrate as he draws on a cigarette.

The decayed housing that once hid addicts has long since been bulldozed. And this year, Lisbon’s city council planted 600 trees and 16,500 bushes on the hillside.

This spring they’re expected to bloom.

Source: AP Features
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Anonymous

You are going to put companies out of business that take advantage of our drug laws? You can’t even give free health care to “normal” citizens that pay high premiums and still can’t get medical help. Reverse the “boogey-man” image of “ex-cons”, in this country? ha ha ha ha. Selling mirrors should be outlawed. America takes a very dim view of itself.
Anonymous

You are going to put companies out of business that take advantage of our drug laws? You can’t even give free health care to “normal” citizens that pay high premiums and still can’t get medical help. Reverse the “boogey-man” image of “ex-cons”, in this country? ha ha ha ha. Selling mirrors should be outlawed. America takes a very dim view of itself.
Anonymous

Sounds like a plan. How about putting narcoligarchies out of business?
Anonymous

Sounds like a plan. How about putting narcoligarchies out of business?
http://muskogeenow.com/?p=6749 MuskogeeNOW! » Portugal legalizes drugs — and it pays off. U.S. looks for answers

[...] Check it out here. Share [...]
Anonymous

….and dissolve the mafia.
Anonymous

….and dissolve the mafia.
http://topsy.com/www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/portugals-drug-policy-pays-eyes-lessons/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention Portugal’s drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons: These days, Casal Ventoso is an ordinary blue-collar community… — Topsy.com

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rob, WorldNewsRecord and others. WorldNewsRecord said: rawstory.com: Portugal’s drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons: http://bit.ly/ewnaMz [...]
Anonymous

The Democrats are too afraid to be called soft on crime to do anything but continue the drug war.
Anonymous

The Democrats are too afraid to be called soft on crime to do anything but continue the drug war.
Anonymous

“The U.S. is spending $74 billion this year on criminal and court proceedings for drug offenders.”

$74 Billion equates to about 1.5 Million, $50K per year, jobs.

That is quite a few people whose livelihood depend upon prohibition.
Anonymous

“The U.S. is spending $74 billion this year on criminal and court proceedings for drug offenders.”

$74 Billion equates to about 1.5 Million, $50K per year, jobs.

That is quite a few people whose livelihood depend upon prohibition.
http://www.philipbrennan.net/2010/12/27/drug-decriminalization-pays-off-in-portugal-as-us-weighs-its-options/ Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options | Philip Brennan

[...] Press | Raw Story | 27 December [...]
Anonymous

Yes! See the review of Portugal’s efforts here:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10080
Anonymous

Yes! See the review of Portugal’s efforts here:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10080
Anonymous

Yes! See the review of Portugal’s efforts here:

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10080
Anonymous

“Antonio Lourenco Martins, a former Portuguese Supreme Court judge who sat on a 1998 commission that drafted the new drug strategy and was one of two on the nine-member panel who voted against decriminalization, admits the law has done some good, but complains that its approach is too soft.”

BUT IT FUCKING WORKS!!! Too soft. FUCK YOU, YOU AUTHORITARIAN PRICK! Other people, IF TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEINGS INSTEAD OF TRASH, don’t’ NEED you being “tough”. OBVIOUSLY your goddamned being “tough” DOESN’T FUCKING WORK! Shove it up your goddamned, unforgiving ass, you bastard.

You can either be smart, or you can keep on doing what we have been for the last 96 years (cocaine and morphine were first made illegal without a prescription in 1914). It’s not working, it’s NEVER worked, it’s nothing but a goddamned rat hole that we keep throwing money down, expecting some kind of different result. And now we read that the DEA is going all over the world, FUCKING IT UP EVEN FURTHER.

IT’S TIME TO END THIS BULLSHIT. NOW. NOT TOMORROW, NOT NEXT WEEK, NOT NEXT MONTH. NOW!
Anonymous

“Antonio Lourenco Martins, a former Portuguese Supreme Court judge who sat on a 1998 commission that drafted the new drug strategy and was one of two on the nine-member panel who voted against decriminalization, admits the law has done some good, but complains that its approach is too soft.”

BUT IT FUCKING WORKS!!! Too soft. FUCK YOU, YOU AUTHORITARIAN PRICK! Other people, IF TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEINGS INSTEAD OF TRASH, don’t’ NEED you being “tough”. OBVIOUSLY your goddamned being “tough” DOESN’T FUCKING WORK! Shove it up your goddamned, unforgiving ass, you bastard.

You can either be smart, or you can keep on doing what we have been for the last 96 years (cocaine and morphine were first made illegal without a prescription in 1914). It’s not working, it’s NEVER worked, it’s nothing but a goddamned rat hole that we keep throwing money down, expecting some kind of different result. And now we read that the DEA is going all over the world, FUCKING IT UP EVEN FURTHER.

IT’S TIME TO END THIS BULLSHIT. NOW. NOT TOMORROW, NOT NEXT WEEK, NOT NEXT MONTH. NOW!
Anonymous

“Antonio Lourenco Martins, a former Portuguese Supreme Court judge who sat on a 1998 commission that drafted the new drug strategy and was one of two on the nine-member panel who voted against decriminalization, admits the law has done some good, but complains that its approach is too soft.”

BUT IT FUCKING WORKS!!! Too soft. FUCK YOU, YOU AUTHORITARIAN PRICK! Other people, IF TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEINGS INSTEAD OF TRASH, don’t’ NEED you being “tough”. OBVIOUSLY your goddamned being “tough” DOESN’T FUCKING WORK! Shove it up your goddamned, unforgiving ass, you bastard.

You can either be smart, or you can keep on doing what we have been for the last 96 years (cocaine and morphine were first made illegal without a prescription in 1914). It’s not working, it’s NEVER worked, it’s nothing but a goddamned rat hole that we keep throwing money down, expecting some kind of different result. And now we read that the DEA is going all over the world, FUCKING IT UP EVEN FURTHER.

IT’S TIME TO END THIS BULLSHIT. NOW. NOT TOMORROW, NOT NEXT WEEK, NOT NEXT MONTH. NOW!
Anonymous

DC are you a webfoot?
Anonymous

DC are you a webfoot?
Anonymous

DC are you a webfoot?
Anonymous

Ever see the movie “Traffic?” The best line in that movie was about how this is a war on your sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. Is that really what we want? How about we help these people instead?
Anonymous

Ever see the movie “Traffic?” The best line in that movie was about how this is a war on your sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. Is that really what we want? How about we help these people instead?
Anonymous

Ever see the movie “Traffic?” The best line in that movie was about how this is a war on your sons, daughters, brothers and sisters. Is that really what we want? How about we help these people instead?
Anonymous

Terror does not work for anything at all. While we call everything war, it is ourselves we fight. While my government spends a fortune on war in Mexico, citizens support the other side and fight back. The American way seems to be war. Everywhere we ask for war.
The DEA has been a world wide instrument of terror since their founding, when the United States decided to make other peoples enjoyment of recreational drugs illegal. They were one of the first stages of the terror, and in that first round we lost many of our protections against search and seizure. Today we have lost most of our liberty, always accompanied by chanting. First it was “Its drug related”. Then there were the terrorists, mythical gremlins we can blame things on, something to be afraid of. Soon they will be like the witches at salem, the Vietnamese in Cambodia, groups we can be afraid of and let the president keep his law of indefinite retention. Those who say otherwise will need to be detained.
hounddogg

not to mention driving around in brand new SUV’s, stipends and too many benefits to imagine…also i think most of the the DEA agents make over 100k per year w/out perks…money dissappears, etc…i got busted with a crop of some of the best pot i had grown in years…it was around 120lbs +….but for some strange reason it was only 26lbs by the time i went to court…hmmm…i wonder where the rest went?…must have been lots of “testing”…//s
Anonymous

But if they legalize drugs, how will they have an excuse to have police bother the lower classes to put them in prisons so the private prison companies can get money from the government?!

Why don’t we think of the profits?!

Not to mention the decimating effect this will have on law enforcement budgets. They might make cops do real work instead of bothering potheads.
Anonymous

Drug use is surely at worst a health problem, not a criminal matter as such. This policy is a great step forward.

However, what *is* a criminal matter is the drug selling infrastructure, all the way from the Columbian drug cartels down to the individual addict’s need to commit crimes to pay for their dope. If we treat drug use as health matter instead of as a criminal offence, we remove the basis for a lot of real criminal activity.

I suppose the strongest supporters of the current drug policy and war-on-drugs are the drug enforcement police – who gets lots of resources and status from it – and the drug cartels – who makes enormous amounts of money from it. And they are both among the most aggressive opponents to changes to the system.
Anonymous

“You just need to rid yourselves of prejudice and take an intelligent approach.”

Lotsa luck doing that in the United States. You think John Boehner is going to listen to documented success and well-reasoned facts? How about Mitch McConnell? Diane Feinstein? Barack Obama?
http://www.costarikker.blogspot.com Motelcalifornia

That is exactly what I was thinking! LOL.If it isn’t alcohol, it’s drugs, and viz.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_J2BKVG44GLNRGIAYKD7UO4O27E Arthur Young

I am sure a lot of you know that around the world problems are addressed ,and solutions and such are looked into before implementing them. In our country the only motivation for change are favors big and small. I read a report about the conservatives in amsterdam who are in the process of reigning in the coffee shops, the problem is not with the locals but the drug tourists and those who buy amounts for sale outside of the Netherlands. This is what the Drug Wars have accomplished since 1932 when Harry Anslinger became the J Edgar Hoover of the Narcotics Department, he and those that came later have actually threatened other Countries over their “softness” on Drugs. The War on Drugs is a Racket and this is now our major export from the War on Drugs, Wall Street, K Street, Tax Laws, Business interactions, you name the scam and somebody is busy at work on it. If the allure, the stigma, and the Court were replaced by education, rehab, etc it would really spoil the pigs at this political trough.
Anonymous

Maybe everyone should just start huffing gas. They’d make gas illegal overnight. (rollseyes)
Unfortunately in this country, you’d start seeing commercials touting the benefits of huffing one brand of gas over another.
Anonymous

Maybe everyone should just start huffing gas. They’d make gas illegal overnight. (rollseyes)
Unfortunately in this country, you’d start seeing commercials touting the benefits of huffing one brand of gas over another.
Anonymous

“Treat” people by locking them up without any resources, help, education, etc. The good ol’ American way. Help translated into vengeance. That’ll learn ‘em!

Why do we do everything backwards in the U.S.?
Anonymous

Cuz we be puritans !! With there communal beds & ‘Friendly” farm animals. Another myth like the Cowboy.
Anonymous

The US first to fight, first with a handout to a foreign government and American Banksters and other assorted connected white collar criminals, and last to make positive changes to humanize its citizenry with common sense policies.
Anonymous

Oh now please enlighten us, what is the “mafia” and how will it help to get rid of them?

Virtually all commerce on this planet takes place under “illegal” circumstances.

Oh now I get it, you are a nihilist and you want to destroy everything.
Anonymous

Oh now please enlighten us, what is the “mafia” and how will it help to get rid of them?

Virtually all commerce on this planet takes place under “illegal” circumstances.

Oh now I get it, you are a nihilist and you want to destroy everything.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JRBJ4PCICLE2LKWF2USZSQWGG4 Jim

Sorry, no options. The War on Drugs isn’t really about the drugs; hell, the Warriors would freak-out if drugs and their righteous gravy train disappeared. Hey, another 2 trillion dollar war with no results. We are good at this stuff.
http://SALON WHITE DRAGON

Whoa! We been there…done that! What happened when we leagalized booze again in 1934(?)
Billions went from the Mafia bootleggers to the liquor store and back into the street economy!…The Mob then graduated to the hard stuff. Now,we need to dump them again along with their crooked elected ‘minders’. Check it Obama!
Just think….What if all of the Afganistan heroin were price controlled and taxed by the USGov?
Whoa! The mind reels.
Anonymous

[begin rant] As an addict who has been through rehab twice, I can say that the only reason I quit was because I wanted to. The rehabs did no good. I believe they should legalize small amounts of certain drugs and make everything else a public health issue, similar to Portugal’s, but with a few changes. No needle handouts, no help for this who are addicted except to get them to treatment centers. and those centers need to be run by former addicts, someone who knows what they are going through. Someone who can tell them it is okay to quit, there is a life after drugs, give them hope, not needles. Addicts only quit because they want to, not because a treatment center made them. The centers need to have counselors who, like I said before, were former addicts themselves. This way the addict can see that maybe they could quit and still survive, because that’s what an addict thinks, “I will not survive with out this drug”. [end of rant]
http://twitter.com/strangersound dxo

Bottom line: The government has no right to police what I do with my body as long as I’m not infringing the rights of others. They have as much right to force me into treatment as they do to jail me. Both give the government authority where it should have none.
Anonymous

“The Obama administration firmly opposes the legalization of drugs, saying that it would increase access and promote acceptance, according to drug czar Kerlikowske. The U.S. is spending $74 billion this year on criminal and court proceedings for drug offenders, compared with $3.6 billion for treatment..”

the obamaites are such slow learners, and i used to think that those guys were smart and on the ball. man have they fumbled the ball, on just about every thing….

that difference between $74 billion and $3.6 billion is just shameful. I wonder who gets all the profits from the $74 billion? and that doesn’t include the military and ‘intelligence’ cost end of things does it??
Anonymous

“The Obama administration firmly opposes the legalization of drugs, saying that it would increase access and promote acceptance, according to drug czar Kerlikowske. The U.S. is spending $74 billion this year on criminal and court proceedings for drug offenders, compared with $3.6 billion for treatment..”

the obamaites are such slow learners, and i used to think that those guys were smart and on the ball. man have they fumbled the ball, on just about every thing….

that difference between $74 billion and $3.6 billion is just shameful. I wonder who gets all the profits from the $74 billion? and that doesn’t include the military and ‘intelligence’ cost end of things does it??
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OPVQJIZRU3ENNGDUF2LZGIXCSI Che_G.

‘So, like anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky leap: They decriminalized the use of all drugs in a groundbreaking law in 2000…’
Idolizing the easy-to-understand American Conservative has not only cost US constitutional freedoms. The $1,000,000,000,000,000 price tag to the US Gov’t. goes to show how naive the Richard Nixon, Ronnie Reagan has been a lost cause for over 35 yrs.
Anonymous

You would think that we would get tired of losing all of these “Wars”; Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Drugs and Terror!

Treatment is and always has been the answer for drug CONSUMPTION related crime. Sending addicts to prison and NOT treating them is a waste of time and money and according to the SF stats half of all UNTREATED “criminals” will be back in the system for three hots and a cot!

I can only hope that the ” new conservatives” in congress will realize that there are big budget savings to be had in addition to income taxes to be collected from people with jobs getting treatment vs. putting people in a jail cell.
http://hammeroftruth.com/2010/wikileaked-cable-reveals-international-dea-spying-network/ WikiLeaked cable reveals international DEA spying network… – Hammer of Truth

[...] cable reveals international DEA spying network… Portugal’s decriminalization efforts a success from all accounts… …except the [...]
http://ecolocalizer.com/2010/12/27/portugals-drug-decriminalization-policy-is-a-resounding-success/ Portugal’s Drug Decriminalization Policy is a Resounding Success – EcoLocalizer

[...] rates, teenage drug use and HIV infections are down, and requests for treatment have increased. The Raw Story reported details on what has happened in the country between 2000 and 2008: There were small [...]
Anonymous

Yep. Timbers Army from good ol’ “Stump Town.” I will admit to liking the Ducks, but i won’t say it too loud, because I am a jinx.
Anonymous

Yep. Timbers Army from good ol’ “Stump Town.” I will admit to liking the Ducks, but i won’t say it too loud, because I am a jinx.
Anonymous

It’s great how you can “beam” in on my “wave-length” and tell everyone at your seance answers to your fucking questions that you think I answered. Watch out Houdini might drop by.

The only thing i can see worth destroying is the pot in the picture.

If you want “illegal” commerce, look no further than the rich bastards. Every damn dime they “earned” was gathered illegally.
Anonymous

It’s great how you can “beam” in on my “wave-length” and tell everyone at your seance answers to your fucking questions that you think I answered. Watch out Houdini might drop by.

The only thing i can see worth destroying is the pot in the picture.

If you want “illegal” commerce, look no further than the rich bastards. Every damn dime they “earned” was gathered illegally.
Anonymous

At least the IRS didn’t estimate at the other weight. Maybe one of the “agents” rolled a “big” joint.
Anonymous

At least the IRS didn’t estimate at the other weight. Maybe one of the “agents” rolled a “big” joint.
Anonymous

too true too true.
what a nation

a republican, Nixon, starting this war on drugs nonsense and a republican will have to end it. unless CA really does legalize some day and that gets the ball rolling….
Anonymous

too true too true.
what a nation

a republican, Nixon, starting this war on drugs nonsense and a republican will have to end it. unless CA really does legalize some day and that gets the ball rolling….
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EWHKSZUWHEPNVWTV7OQOZESQIQ D.

The United States banking system launders up to one trillion dollars a years in organized crime (drug) profits. Illegal drugs keep this country afloat. Drugs will never be legalized until at least this much changes.

Catherine Austin Fitts (former asst. secretary of housing under Bush I), for more info:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDPiyVfcCpc
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EWHKSZUWHEPNVWTV7OQOZESQIQ D.

The United States banking system launders up to one trillion dollars a years in organized crime (drug) profits. Illegal drugs keep this country afloat. Drugs will never be legalized until at least this much changes.

Catherine Austin Fitts (former asst. secretary of housing under Bush I), for more info:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDPiyVfcCpc
http://greenfloyd.site90.com/_roller.readerX.php greenfloyd

Even though Obama’s admin publicly plays-down the drug war rhetoric, it has nonetheless become an integral part of US foreign policy. Read this recent NY Times article on the DEA to get an idea of just how far things have gone. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/world/26wikidrugs.html?_r=2

Find more drug war bookmarks here: http://greenfloyd.site90.com/_roller.readerX.php?collection=1&folder=drug%20war
http://greenfloyd.site90.com/_roller.readerX.php greenfloyd

Even though Obama’s admin publicly plays-down the drug war rhetoric, it has nonetheless become an integral part of US foreign policy. Read this recent NY Times article on the DEA to get an idea of just how far things have gone. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/world/26wikidrugs.html?_r=2

Find more drug war bookmarks here: http://greenfloyd.site90.com/_roller.readerX.php?collection=1&folder=drug%20war
http://greenfloyd.site90.com/_roller.readerX.php greenfloyd

Even though Obama’s admin publicly plays-down the drug war rhetoric, it has nonetheless become an integral part of US foreign policy. Read this recent NY Times article on the DEA to get an idea of just how far things have gone. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/world/26wikidrugs.html?_r=2

Find more drug war bookmarks here: http://greenfloyd.site90.com/_roller.readerX.php?collection=1&folder=drug%20war
hourglass1

yea but the drugs-are-us war on drugs and incarceration industries are still growing and worth multi-billions of dollars, and without a mnfg base for employment, work for high-school and g.e.d. educated cops and prison guards and the kick-backs to them and judges and local law enforcement is just too lucrative.
hourglass1

yea but the drugs-are-us war on drugs and incarceration industries are still growing and worth multi-billions of dollars, and without a mnfg base for employment, work for high-school and g.e.d. educated cops and prison guards and the kick-backs to them and judges and local law enforcement is just too lucrative.
Tyke

The real issue at hand is decriminalization not legalization. Many on Obama’s team support decriminalization.
Anonymous

i’d like to know who those people are and where they have made those kind of statements, if you know….
Anonymous

You’ve got to hand out needles because of the HIV issues.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IWWR5EJPPMAWDDEBNESFMQAMWI Carlton

I last used freebase cocaine April 1985. I spent six months in rehabilitation during that year January to March. Relapse; then, April to July. I am considered a recovering cocaine addict because just one use would break my recovery then lead me back into the strong arm of addiction.

I published: The Joy of Cocaine and Addiction Recovery; The Surrender Then Resurrection Of The Soul. ISBN 1-4184-5445-3 Author House/USA. The addict must know he has three personalities: the pre-addict, the addict and the recovery person.

The recovery person must be stronger than the pre-addict and the ever powerful strong arm of the addicted person.

Drug abuse addiction recovery is a painful, growth full of horrors that must stick knives into our humanity in order to survive. at times the pains of recovery seem easier than suicide. but the addict must have faith that he could be rewired back up to a normal person, just as drugs rewired him down into an addicted person. It is always almost impossible to climb up the mountain to recovery than to free-fall down the mountain of addiction.

My book: The Joy of Cocaine and Addiction Recovery. No pleasure is as great as drug addiction and no pain greater than being without drugs. The addict having experienced them both must make up his mind.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IWWR5EJPPMAWDDEBNESFMQAMWI Carlton

I last used freebase cocaine April 1985. I spent six months in rehabilitation during that year January to March. Relapse; then, April to July. I am considered a recovering cocaine addict because just one use would break my recovery then lead me back into the strong arm of addiction.

I published: The Joy of Cocaine and Addiction Recovery; The Surrender Then Resurrection Of The Soul. ISBN 1-4184-5445-3 Author House/USA. The addict must know he has three personalities: the pre-addict, the addict and the recovery person.

The recovery person must be stronger than the pre-addict and the ever powerful strong arm of the addicted person.

Drug abuse addiction recovery is a painful, growth full of horrors that must stick knives into our humanity in order to survive. at times the pains of recovery seem easier than suicide. but the addict must have faith that he could be rewired back up to a normal person, just as drugs rewired him down into an addicted person. It is always almost impossible to climb up the mountain to recovery than to free-fall down the mountain of addiction.

My book: The Joy of Cocaine and Addiction Recovery. No pleasure is as great as drug addiction and no pain greater than being without drugs. The addict having experienced them both must make up his mind.
Anonymous

I love Catherine Austin Fitts and I am familiar with her solutions for this bankster coup and your are right… the underground economics are what is driving our financial condition.
Anonymous

As usual in the fascist shit stain on the planet called Amerikkka – it is all about the MONEY!! 74 Billion spent on throwing people who are addicts and need compassion and TREATMENT into Prison – so they can keep the good ole private prison industrial complex cranking along. All we export is grief, with our wars and occupations and our Monsanto franken foods destroying the planet. Amerikkka – you SUCK!
grindermonkey

“You just need to rid yourselves of prejudice and take an intelligent approach.”

That pretty much says it all: the word ‘compassion’ comes to mind as well. The war on drugs is being waged just like the banks’ war on depositors and creditors, “Got a problem? Well the fault is yours, so just suffer and twist slowly in the wind.” The presence of maggots always indicates the presence of prejudice, indifference and neglect. Change you can count on not working.
grindermonkey

“You just need to rid yourselves of prejudice and take an intelligent approach.”

That pretty much says it all: the word ‘compassion’ comes to mind as well. The war on drugs is being waged just like the banks’ war on depositors and creditors, “Got a problem? Well the fault is yours, so just suffer and twist slowly in the wind.” The presence of maggots always indicates the presence of prejudice, indifference and neglect. Change you can count on not working.
Anonymous

More than half a million people were behind bars for drug offenses in the United States at the end of last year, according to numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In a report released Sunday, Prisoners in 2004, the Justice Department number-crunchers found that people sentenced for drug crimes accounted for 21% of state prisoners and 55% of all federal prisoners.

This report did not quantify the number of jail inmates doing time on drug charges in 2004, but an earlier BJS report put the percentage of jail inmates doing time for drug crime at 24.7% in 2002. Given the slow upward trend in drug prisoners as a percentage of all jail prisoners, DRCNet estimates that given a mid-year 2004 jail population of 714,000, approximately one-quarter, or 178,000 people were sitting in jail on drug charges at that time. With 178,000 drug prisoners in jail, more than 87,000 federal drug prisoners, and more than 266,000 state drug prisoners, the total number of people doing time for drugs in the United States last year exceeded 530,000.

SACRAMENTO — Americans spend $60 billion a year to imprison 2.2 million people — exceeding any other nation — but receive a dismal return on the investment, according to a report to be released today by a commission urging greater public scrutiny of what goes on behind bars.

Now let’s do the numbers: Approximately $7.5 billion is spent EACH year to imprison nonviolent individuals for drug offenses. Beyond the cost, we should also not forget the overcrowding and terrible conditions in many prison systems across the U.S. Clearly we can do better, when will our elected officials show some semblance of sanity regarding this issue?
alfredo

Decriminalizing drugs would really hurt the prison industry here in the U. S.
It costs money to train counselors. Rough Necks and former loggers qualify as prison guards with little or no additional training.
For profit prison owners, Dick Cheney among them, have been effective in advocating for longer and longer sentences for drug offenders. Ex. in Texas, depending of the darkness of your skin, you might be sentenced to 30 years for possession of 1/2 once of marijuana.
alfredo

Great post!
“I can only hope that the ” new conservatives” in congress will realize that there are big budget savings to be had in addition to income taxes to be collected from people with jobs getting treatment vs. putting people in a jail cell.”

I swear they wont do anything like that. Not until Obama has shown them his birth certificate.
They are already figuring out how much they can cut the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health (or eliminate them all together) and add the money to the military spending.
alfredo

Great post!
“I can only hope that the ” new conservatives” in congress will realize that there are big budget savings to be had in addition to income taxes to be collected from people with jobs getting treatment vs. putting people in a jail cell.”

I swear they wont do anything like that. Not until Obama has shown them his birth certificate.
They are already figuring out how much they can cut the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health (or eliminate them all together) and add the money to the military spending.
alfredo

Great post!
“I can only hope that the ” new conservatives” in congress will realize that there are big budget savings to be had in addition to income taxes to be collected from people with jobs getting treatment vs. putting people in a jail cell.”

I swear they wont do anything like that. Not until Obama has shown them his birth certificate.
They are already figuring out how much they can cut the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health (or eliminate them all together) and add the money to the military spending.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_J2BKVG44GLNRGIAYKD7UO4O27E Arthur Young

Amazing how fast this INDUSTRY has grown and how many players have sidled up to the table. Yet another scam that has taken to America like a Barnacle to a tugboat.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_J2BKVG44GLNRGIAYKD7UO4O27E Arthur Young

Amazing how fast this INDUSTRY has grown and how many players have sidled up to the table. Yet another scam that has taken to America like a Barnacle to a tugboat.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_J2BKVG44GLNRGIAYKD7UO4O27E Arthur Young

Amazing how fast this INDUSTRY has grown and how many players have sidled up to the table. Yet another scam that has taken to America like a Barnacle to a tugboat.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6EWDTDGGPM2NUB23WZXTLKO6DI Lorili

Nothing will change in the US. Too many bankers, and their owned senators and congressmen making billions on illegal drugs. Plus the CIA’s and DEA’s mission of making sure the right people profit from it all. And all the cops too stupid to do anything else but harass and arrest people for nothing.
http://positromagnetics.wordpress.com/2010/12/28/quick-round-up/ Quick round-up « Positromagnetics

[...] tough drug decrim policy is profiled and compared to changing US policies and attitudes. Factual error regarding California’s [...]
Anonymous

Fraudbama is nothing but the biggest tool, bought and paid for trojan horse ever foisted upon the American public – and that is saying alot. Fraudbama made alot of us believe that we could change the broken system. We can’t….Time to leave the good ole US of KKK.
Anonymous

Fraudbama is nothing but the biggest tool, bought and paid for trojan horse ever foisted upon the American public – and that is saying alot. Fraudbama made alot of us believe that we could change the broken system. We can’t….Time to leave the good ole US of KKK.
Anonymous

Anti-drug fanatics take note: the one-sided impression you’ve been given all these years that the only way to deal with drugs is criminalization and persecution of users is false.
Anonymous

Anti-drug fanatics take note: the one-sided impression you’ve been given all these years that the only way to deal with drugs is criminalization and persecution of users is false.
Anonymous

Anti-drug fanatics take note: the one-sided impression you’ve been given all these years that the only way to deal with drugs is criminalization and persecution of users is false.
Anonymous

calling all problems as a one sided political issue where everything-you-hate-cornucopia is the enemy, versus an objective fact based argument, reduces the conversation to the point of inaction and results in the dismissal among those who most need to be convinced of its changing.
http://ispey.com/bizarre/bizarre/drug-decriminalization-pays-off-in-portugal-as-us-weighs-its-options-2/ Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options · Bizarre – Oddities

[...] Read the original post: Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options [...]
Anonymous

Is it just me, or is this article trying to lump all drugs together?
Anonymous

Is it just me, or is this article trying to lump all drugs together?
Anonymous

You have to look at it this way. Obama cannot afford to side with the treatment programs listed in the article until he is reelected again. There would be no end to the political hay the Repub/baggers would make of it.Look what they did to him with out cause. This would be a deal breaker for him if he even talked about it to soon.Remember this man is a chess player NOT a checkers player. Do NOT underestimate him.
Anonymous

You have to look at it this way. Obama cannot afford to side with the treatment programs listed in the article until he is reelected again. There would be no end to the political hay the Repub/baggers would make of it.Look what they did to him with out cause. This would be a deal breaker for him if he even talked about it to soon.Remember this man is a chess player NOT a checkers player. Do NOT underestimate him.
http://www.thetruthhurts.co.uk/wordpress/?p=3587 Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options | www.thetruthhurts.co.uk

[...] Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options December 29 | Posted by admin | Government Run The Drugs Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options [...]
http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/afrikan-world-news/43723-blackman-faces-5-prison-spying-cheating-wife.html#post182670 Blackman Faces 5 In Prison For Spying On Cheating Wife – Assata Shakur Speaks – Hands Off Assata – Let’s Get Free – Revolutionary – Pan-Africanism – Black On Purpose – Liberation – Forum

[...] [...]
http://8allafricagames.org/blackman-faces-5-in-prison-for-spying-on-cheating-wife/ Blackman Faces 5 In Prison For Spying On Cheating Wife

[...] Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options | Raw Story [...]
http://www.addictionrecoveryportal.com/2010/12/29/should-drugs-be-decriminalized-part/ Should drugs be decriminalized? | Addiction recovery information, help and support for recovery from addiction

[...] The United states spends about 1 trillion dollars a year on the “war on drugs” as more people die from drug related violence, and as our privately owned jails get filled up beyond capacity. There is something the United States can learn from the Portugese. [...]
http://nw0.eu/drug-decriminalization-pays-off-in-portugal-as-us-weighs-its-options.html Drug Decriminalization Pays Off in Portugal as US Weighs its Options | NW0.eu

[...] Read more: Drug Decriminalization Pays Off in Portugal as US Weighs its Options Related Posts:Guilty After Six-Year Trial, Portugal’s High-Society Paedophile RingEuro Under Siege After Portugal Hits Panic ButtonAlcohol More Harmful to Health Than Crack Cocaine and HeroinMedical Journal Papers Promoting HRT Drugs Ghostwritten by Major Drug CompanySheriffs Want Database of Prescription Drug Users [...]
http://przxqgl.hybridelephant.com/?p=4562 Scab of a nation, driven insane : another week closer to the eschaton…

[...] Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options – if the US gummint is really considering this, it would be a giant step forward, but i fear that it will take 15 or 20 years before we’re smart enough to actually try it… and by then, it may be too late… [...]
http://radiofreethinker.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/show-notes-for-episode-96/ Show notes for Episode 96 « Radio Freethinker

[...] decriminalization success in Portugal, see here and [...]
Anonymous

Yes, exactly. That’s why people go to prison for smoking weed and then end up with no direction or treatment and start selling it to your son or daughter on the street. You want a profitable industry here in the US to replace the prison system? Try integrating treatment clinics as part of the prison system. That way the US can make more money (as we see treatment went up almost 20% in Portugal as just one case) and still “give back” to the community at the end of the day when your kids pass high school instead of getting expelled for smoking a j.
Anonymous

Yes, exactly. That’s why people go to prison for smoking weed and then end up with no direction or treatment and start selling it to your son or daughter on the street. You want a profitable industry here in the US to replace the prison system? Try integrating treatment clinics as part of the prison system. That way the US can make more money (as we see treatment went up almost 20% in Portugal as just one case) and still “give back” to the community at the end of the day when your kids pass high school instead of getting expelled for smoking a j.
http://mussdp.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/portugal-leads-by-example/ Portugal Leads by Example « Mussdp's Blog

[...] clipped from http://www.rawstory.com [...]
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t774381/#post8893817 new recreational drug on the market – Stormfront

[...] that approach into law. The result: More people tried drugs, but fewer ended up addicted." Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options | Raw Story __________________ Bayonets, NOT Bailouts!!! Bankers Are The New [...]

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Drug decriminalization pays off in Portugal as US weighs its options

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