Decrimilinization of Drugs in Portugal Eight Years After The Fact

In 2001, Portugal became the first country on the planet to decriminalize all drugs regardless of type. Personal drug use was treated as a health problem, not criminal, and as a result anyone caught with an illegal substance was sent to treatment centers not jail. Politicians in all their infinite wisdom howled that a drug scourge would descend on Portugal like a plague and their way of life would be subject to drug gangs, poverty, increased drug use and basically end of world scenarios. So what happened eight years later after such a drastic step was taken? Nothing. No apocalyptic destruction of Lisbon. No small children smoking crack in the doorways. As a matter of fact, drug use dropped by ten percent, which is exactly what every study shown would happen. Illegality attracts people to it like a moth to flame. Once the stigma of being dangerous is removed so is the attraction to it. Drug use among young adults showed the most dramatic turn around, showing that the scourge the idiot politicians expected never materialized. Anyone caught now with small amounts of drugs are taken to discouragement centers that talk to people into giving up their addictions and help find them treatment should they desire it. Unlike here where drug treatment centers are being filed up with marijuana users sent there by the courts. Nobody who smokes pot needs treatment. If you can't quit pot, there really is no hope for you and you should just shoot yourself and be done with it. Marijuana is not addictive no matter how many times some fool scientist repeats it. If you are so weak that pot is addictive, stay far far away from just about everything including alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine. The drug war in this country must end if for no other reason that we can't afford it anymore. It is doing zero good and the Portugal model had been a rousing success saving the country billions every year. Are we really so stupid a people that we can continue to waste billions on a project that has shown no results? Our country has seen a rise in drug use while the rest of Europe is going the other way. The US is the number one country on Earth for drug use. We also use harsher sentences than just about any country short of places like Iran or Saudi Arabia. Do we really want to lumped in with these morons? We are becoming a more and more religious society, a factor that will have serious repercussions in the years to come. Portugal was thought to become a drug vacation spot once drugs were decriminalized. Didn't happen. Drugs would become more prevalent. Didn't happen. As other European countries, ten in total, adopted these ideas, their drug use also went down. So if it's worked everywhere it's been implicated the why haven't we? Because the American people are perhaps the dumbest individuals on the planet, only being out moroned by those in the Middle East who riot every time accidentally someone says Mohammed's name wrong, we will never get anything done here. It has come to light that many states are going to raise insurance rates such as 20% in Connecticut. Only because of Obamacare is this number NOT being automatically foisted upon the people. Negotiations have to occur first before any rate hike which will keep costs down. How do I know? Because in this state of Massachusetts, that is exactly what has to occur and prices have been kept lower than the national average. So a big FU to all those morons out there clamoring about Obamcare's repeal. Do it and watch your prices soar. The Republicans are not your friends. They worship big business just like the democrats. Until both parties are out of power, along with the super stupid Tea Party, this country is screwed. Until we have politicians brave enough to fight for things like decriminalization we are all subject to whatever folly the politicians will descend upon us. Stay wise America.