Next Time You Smoke Weed, Remember This!

Have a read of this snippet, then pop over to Aljazeera and read the rest, maybe watch the vid here to from >>>>>http://www.youtube.com/user/IAMHEMP420<<<<< he has some quality stuffs for you over there.

Big thanks to my buddy Indy for the article, cheers buddy.

Snippet;

“The Portuguese government decriminalised all drug use, including the so-called “dangerous drugs” like heroin, methamphetamine and crack cocaine. decriminalization is not legalisation, and the police can still arrest people for drug use and drug trafficking. But with the passage of Law 30/2000, drug use or possession is not deemed a criminal offence but instead, an administrative one. Portuguese drug policy experts confronted the fact that prison stigmatised people, teaches criminal survival skills and makes social reintegration difficult. And putting people behind bars didn’t decrease drug use.

People are allowed to have up to 10 days-worth of any drug. Nuno Capaz, a sociologist in Lisbon, said, “We’re not in the business of handing out criminal records. The police aren’t stalking drug users to arrest them.” The Portuguese criminal justice system is no longer overcrowded with drug users. According to the Institute of Drug and Drug Dependence, the number of people arrested for criminal offences related to drugs plummeted from 14,000 to an average of 5,000-5,500 per year.

A new strategy for understanding the social determinants of drug use and addiction was developed based on the principles of humanism and pragmatism. The values of dignity, respect, choice and the guaranteed right to treatment is the bedrock of the National Drug Strategy. This fundamental paradigm shift has changed the way Portuguese society thinks about those who use illegal drugs. They believe that antes tratar que punir, it is better to treat than punish. Drug users aren’t criminals to be demonized and incarcerated, but human beings who use drugs recreationally and should be left alone, or have an addiction and should be offered help.

The pragmatism built into Portuguese drug policy eliminated the adoption of solutions and interventions based on unscientific, coercive, menacing drug war lies and hype. An unapologetic harm reduction approach is embedded at every level of the system, from the understanding of the causes of addiction (poverty, social isolation) to the variety of drug treatment options available (mobile methadone vans and non-12-step drug treatment.)”