Pop quiz: Which European country has the most liberal drug laws? (Hint: It’s not the Netherlands.)
Although its capital is notorious among stoners and college kids for marijuana haze–filled “coffee shops,” Holland has never actually legalized cannabis — the Dutch simply don’t enforce their laws against the shops. The correct answer is Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
The U.S. has long championed a hard-line drug policy, supporting only international agreements that enforce drug prohibition and imposing on its citizens some of the world’s harshest penalties for drug possession and sales. Yet America has the highest rates of cocaine and marijuana use in the world, and while most of the E.U. (including Holland) has more liberal drug laws than the U.S., it also has less drug use.
and
The U.S. is home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners.
Yeah, that’s a pretty big mischaracteriztion Hawkeye. Greenwald is big on civil liberties, but don’t mistake him for a market fundamentalist or a Paulite or whatever.
plus, this wasn’t a “study”. This was statistical data on a whole country. Sure, he’s spinning it for all it’s worth, but those are actual stats achieved from an actual law, in place in an actual country. They’re as clear as they can be, too. While there’s the possibility of the actual libertarian group’s report cherrypicking stats, what would it even be possible to contrast to those numbers that would make them less valid?
Greenwald recently did a video interview for Reason.tvhere.
Yeah, that’s a pretty big mischaracteriztion Hawkeye. Greenwald is big on civil liberties, but don’t mistake him for a market fundamentalist or a Paulite or whatever.
The guy works for Cato and is as libertarian as they get, but unless you assign all libertarians as insane (like Hawkeye), no, he’s not of the diluted GOOGLE RON PAUL variety.
Haha, wow guys. First, I was referring to the Cato Institute. Second, I did not call libertarians insane. Forgive me for being slightly dubious of a study performed by an organization which has an ideological interest in the outcome.
This is all I’m saying. I’m not even saying I don’t believe the report. Independent verification would be nice, though.
Sure, but verification of what exactly? From what I understand, while the Cato Institute is the group capitalizing on it for the American sphere, the numbers themselves come from every official governmental source in Portugal. The article was kinda rubbish at distinguishing between the institute and the Portuguese policies, though, which were as far as I know developed completely independently of any american institution. So I see how the association might be confusing
The stats basically come from the Institute of Drugs and Drug Addiction, plus some from the EU. I actually think a lot of Greenwald’s between country comparisons are sketchy, but the basic fact that drug usage went down in Portugal while it went up all throughout the rest of the EU is pretty telling.
… Minor drug offenders fill your prisons
You dont even flinch
All our taxes
paying for your wars
Against the new non-rich
Minor drug offenders fill your prisons
You dont even flinch
All our taxes paying for your wars
Against the new non-rich
I buy my crack, I smack my bitch
Right here in hollywood
The percentage of americans in the prison system
Prison system, has doubled since 1985
…
Forgive me for being so leading, but are there any studies of political issues that don’t have an ideological interest in the outcome? Some kid’s science project, perhaps? I’m genuinely curious where pure objective results come from.
