How Portugal and Colorado solved their drug problems | The Economist
How Portugal and Colorado solved their drug problems | The Economist
For 20 years The Economist has led calls for a rethink on drug prohibition. This film looks at new approaches to drugs policy, from Portugal to Colorado.
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Early morning in mainland Europe two white vans are quietly being loaded full of cocaine, hashish, and ecstasy. They’re being readied to move nearly four tons of narcotics. Authorities have been trying for decades to contain the global trade in illicit drugs. The drugs in these vans will be taken to an incinerator and destroyed. It’s a journey the Portuguese police make every month and they know there’s no end in sight.
At a Portuguese incineration plant the drug squad prepares to burn their latest haul. For years Portugal took a hard-line approach to drugs. In the 1990s drug use spread to every part of society in this small European country. One in every hundred of the population were believed to be addicted to heroin. Simply incinerating their supply was no answer. The country needed to forge a radical new approach to drugs.
In 2001 Portugal came up with a policy that would put its people first. A new law enables citizens to possess small amounts of any illegal drug. It would no longer be a criminal offense for mostly casual users to enjoy their vice of choice. State resources could be focused on addicts; instead of being punished for their dependency they’d be offered help.
Decriminalization has removed much of the stigma addicts felt and the fear of prosecution that stopped them from seeking help. 90% of Portugal’s anti-drugs resources are now spent on treatment and prevention. 10% on policing and punishment. In the United States it’s the opposite.
Since decriminalization, drug-induced deaths have dropped from 80 in 2001 to just 16 in 2012. Over the same period the total number of heroin addicts halved. Portugal’s experiment defied the fears of opponents and broke a global policy taboo. But for all its success, the new approach did nothing to address the supply side of the drugs trade. Though citizens weren’t now being arrested for possessing drugs, the police were still chasing their dealers. Globally, criminal gangs and drugs cartels continued to dominate a drug trade worth over 300 billion dollars.
The countries where those drugs originated continued to pay the price they’ve been paying for over a quarter of a century.
The drug producing countries of Latin America are following the lead of Portugal and demanding change. But it’s the country that began the war on drugs the might just bring it to an end. Here in America they’re now selling marijuana in the mall.
In 2014, Colorado became the first US state to fully legalize cannabis. Within a year it had already become a 700 million dollar business there. Among the new industries biggest players, Medicine Man is testament to the growing impacts of a new breed of cannabis capitalists.
50 different marijuana strains are grown, trimmed, dried and cured to develop their flavor and potency. It’s cultivation on an industrial scale, yet Colorado law requires every plant to be tracked throughout the process from seed to sale.
Legal controls are helping move marijuana away from the black market and into mainstream society.
Testament to just how mainstream marijuana has become is the fastest-growing part of the industry known as edibles. There’s a plethora of food and drink products designed to appeal to a public who may never have smoked. Infused with cannabis oil, edibles offer an example of how legalization enabled regulation. In 2014, Colorado introduced strict new rules on the packaging and potency of these products. For the industry it’s become a necessary part of building trust with the public.
Initial research has suggested marijuana use by teenagers actually fell. Meanwhile, the state reaped revenues of 76 million dollars from fees and taxes on marijuana sales that set to rise to nearly a hundred million dollars in 2016 and with it the funding of schools and the police it’s been earmarked for.
Colorado’s experience helped to trigger a momentum for change across the United States. Almost half of American states have now taken some steps to legalize and regulate cannabis. Fourteen years ago Portugal’s experiments at a bold new path for dealing with drugs. The shift it prompted could be about to reach a critical global mass.
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Listen to and share modern Portuguese music, Telemóveis by Conan Osíris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSbp8lwCQp8
0:54 "prugut"
Colorado didn’t solve anything. Heroin y meth are everywhere, and cheap af. And u can literally buy thc edibles in Dallas Tx in packaging straight out of Denver dispensary’s
I thought all drugs were legal in Portugal?
That change is coming is no doubt. How much more damage the authorities intend to do before that happens is best directed at them. I am sure that the prohibitionists will be the first to want to make money off drugs.
Brilliant approach!
Keep legalizing this shit baby
🤔
I don’t give a damn, not all drugs are strong or bad and Portugheze is not a small c.
It’s about time drugs became legal ! The problem is not only the junkies and the dealers it’s the do gooder public and public servants who think they know what’s best for everybody who don’t know shit and continue to push for harsh sentencing and jail terms and what do you get? Over crowded jails, more criminal groups, more victims more corruption and more wasted tax payer dollars and every year it gets bigger! WTF! I have been saying this for over 30 years, Get rid of those people who are standing in the way of change!!!
Mexican drug farmers are increasingly in trouble facing the competition from drug cultivators within the US who can now grow them legally to sell them in the US.
Also i wish USA finally understands how to win the war on drugs.. but too many lobbyists and little regulation without a strong public healthcare system, will probably only end in failure. The USA has much deeper core problems than simply decriminalize all drugs… In this issue (like in many others) political ideologies and benefits should really be put aside, if the wish, is for the issue to really be solved or, at least, contained. Btw, props to Colorado!
Good job Portugal.
San Francisco unfortunately us still stuck in the problem.
https://youtu.be/5gT5NULvRSk
how due they get their funding to support their drugs? That is the real crime!
ITs SAD that now they even INCOURAGE and TEACH people how to Use ( roll) drugs.
Anna
Why did Portugal have a drug problem to begin with?
Purchase your quality weed here
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I don’t know why, but that joint rolling class cracked me up a lot!
best solution is to incinerate all drug users & traffickers
I live in Colorado. The way our streets look downtown are completely different than 6 years ago when this video came out. Our city is absolutely disgusting. Graffiti and drug camps all over the streets. My nephew just died from fentynal and I know 7 people total who have died from opioids from family to friends to acquaintances. Fentynal seizure is up 2400% since we lightened up on the laws. This video did not age well. They are wrong and this propaganda is killing people. Do not believe. Go walk in downtown Denver and see for yourself. It’s literally trashed. It wasn’t like that when I was a kid. I’ve lived here my whole life and it became noticeable around 2014 and 2015. It gets measurably worse each year. About 2 years ago (2019) I made the decision not to go downtown anymore. It’s sad and I don’t want to expose my family to what is down there.
Is there more in Lisbon or Porto?
I agree with this, people need help! Its so scary when we all walk around thing smoking cig, and drinking ok, and any healthier! Really? DO NOT JUDGE, HELP! "Global Compass"
As religion continues to fail people and deceit like in the Catholic Church, and ISIS actively turn people away from religion, meditation and self exploration will take more hold. Under these circumstances of many people meditating, mental clarity becomes the preference over the choice of drugs for recreation or escape from problems. What this means is that if all drugs are legalized then the fear of masses of people becoming addicts will be unfounded.
Omg government got out off people’s decision and it worked out…shocking.
I think the US needs to do so as well. It would help so many people like me who deal with a TBI/SCI and deal with awful nerve pain.
Drug prohibition it’s terrible the US war on drugs is & will always be a complete failure the prohibition makes a black market so terrorist & organized crime can thrive & make billions if we just legalized their market would be cut off immediately their money would drain & they would be out of buisness we would have safer drugs for those who do choose to us it’s not right to tell someone you cannot put a plant into your body your not allowed so basically your NOT FREE the US has a opoid epidemic & to NO surprise illegal drugs DID NOT start it Purdue pharma & OxyContin started our current opoid epidemic pharma started it now cartels fill the void with heroin while hundreds & thousands die our country waged a war on its own citizens all the while forcing the middle & poor class to pay the price America incarcerates more than any other country & we also use more drugs than any other country we also lead in mass incarceration & mass shooting those are the ONlY fields America leads in what a shame we have all the information alcohol prohibition NEVER WORKED it made a black market for dangerous criminal to make millions & drug prohibition does the same essentially the drug trade n use goes underground diseases spread people overdose outta fear of prison the only people who profit off the drug war are the rich they own private prisons n profit off others pain through incarceration & also pharma does not want drugs legalized it’s bad for their buisness also law enforcement will lose money & have to be empathetic the war on drugs was started by a corrupt criminal Richard Nixon & the US outlawed drugs because it was thought it would hurt ONlY minorities & now 2018 kids of every demographic are now heroin addicts because of the pharma industry exploiting a heroin like pill OxyContin they pod doctors to prescribe it for everything & paid politicians to do their bidding because incentives in the form of campaign donations we could literally stop terrorism cartels organized crime immediately if we legalized their money would be cut off immediately it would make Americans safer & mass incarceration would stop because the working & lower class eventually pays the ENTiRE PRICE fuck this war on drugs it’s a war on people it’s WRONG it’s made NO ONe SAFER actually drugs are more accessible & also have a higher quality & drug prohibition is directly to blame for the rise of synthetic fentanyl that’s killing hundreds of thousands in the country RIGHT NOW this war needs to be ended the US bullies other country’s into adopting our failed policies & it’s disgusting our government is putting us in danger by continuing this war because terrorist organization organized crime cartels depend on the money from illegal drug sales to continue their terror his could be stopped immediately for the most part END THE DRUG WAR
Hey i was wondering if i could get the sources of this video
Great film!
SO many benefits of legalizing it in a controlled manner.
And regarding money, they made money by selling it, but they would also save an enourmous amount of money in the police force concerning the users and the gangs aswell as the jail system.
They should incinerate Port wine too.
war on the drugs is the biggest joke ever ….there no way you can have a war on a substance .and if anyone NOTICE WHEN TRICKY DICKY came into office the war started he lifted the ban on OPIOD use so the drugs big phmara can make big money we protect the poppy flieds in afgan the taliban is a joke it to preserve the poppy fleids so big phmara can make there powerful painkiller to make the money ….gwb was a coke head …..what a joke and for fatass christty he shouldn’t worried drugs worry about his fat ass…..
Still illegal in the UK 2019 and probably never going to change the uk are in the dark ages still
Well focusing on Cannabis should only be the beginning. Cartels won’t fall in South America and other regions if we don’t change the general drug policies.
They forgot to say that in Portugal you cant buy weed legaly…
That is some really stupid policy, They are better off letting individual liberty decide their policy.
Like in the US people make jokes about Poles, in Brazil we do about Portuguese. Here we know it’s only jokes and we learn in school about the great historic accomplishments of Portugal – and on the news about the recent ones. A great country!!!
I hope in the US people know that Copernicus, Chopin and Joseph Conrad were Poles – and these are only a few names.
Texas is still way behind!!!
See yankees , here is América too
Meanwhile in the United States where they are cracking down on opiates, we are seeing a horrible fentanyl crisis. Drug wars criminalize citizens, and the police who enforce unjust drug laws.
As a Libertarian, this is music to my ears. This video serves as a vindication for everything that we have been saying for YEARS! And yet, we’ve had to constantly fight the Democrats and the Republicans every step of the way in our battle FOR FREEDOM!!!! Furthermore, how do the "Big Government Control Freaks" philosophically justify telling ANY of us what we can and can not put into our own bodies???? Thank you for posting!
Part solution to the drug problem in the USA:
1) Legalise marijuana for medicinal purpose in all States.
2) States can opt to legalise it for recreational purposes. If not, then penalties should be only fines and/or community services-no jail time. This will drive down the use of opioids , lower the prison population as well as benefiting the community.
Advise to eat it via cakes and not smoke it which can lead to lung problems, chiefly the chemicals in paper
3) Anyone caught taking it and driving be subject to drink/driving laws.
4) Employers can make rules to fire you if you use it at work ,without any employee comeback.
5) Hard drugs would still be illegal but set up treatment centres for addicts.
6) Run programmes on the danger of any mind altering drug
7) Limit its use to over 18s.
The Economist with their pro drug-corporation agenda, I see you Economist.
5 years later USA still tripping over drugs
Come on, PA lets fund our schools.
Clear Slabs
Gold Slabs
Amber Slabs
Trim Run
Rosin
Wax
Crumble
Shatter
Flowers
Edibles
Carts
Pre rolls
Trim Run
Pre rolls with Keif
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Wickr//jonesdrugz
Clear Slabs
Gold Slabs
Amber Slabs
Trim Run
Rosin
Wax
Crumble
Shatter
Flowers
Edibles
Carts
Pre rolls
Trim Run
Pre rolls with Keif
Coke
Pills
Wickr//jonesdrugz
yes more legal drugs eliminates the black market in which those drugs used to finance the cartels and gangs. the prohibition of alcohol only made Al Capone and his bootleggers rich and dangerous. the Sinaloa cartel would be bankrupt if there was a legal regulated framework to obtain the drugs that they make a fortune selling. it is basic laws of supply and demand. As long as there is a demand for drugs (which there will be) the supply will always be met; regardless of the amount of arrests made. Americans will always want to do drugs. doing drugs is a natural human will; just like eating, sleep, and sex. making a black market out of natural behavior is corrosive to our communities and filling our prisons. why do you think the USA has the highest prison population in the world? research Portugal and their drug policy, that is the way to win the war on drugs.
money is the cause … do something about money .
Why Jose Ferreira look like mourinho
when you have to ban something, ban a specific use of it, don’t ban the ownership of it.
Everybody knows the war on drugs has not, does not, cannot, and will not ever work in the way it was conceived to do so. One only has to look at the statistics in relation to the objectives to see this…even those enforcing the laws and rules cannot argue with this. It’s plain for all to see. Ppls decisions to do or not do something, whatever that may be, is rarely based upon that ‘things’ legality status. In fact, it would be fair to say, if someone, anyone, is ‘told’ not to do something that doesn’t have a moral issue associated with it, chances are, they are at some point going to do it. And why shouldn’t they? ☮❤ & freedom to all 🙏🏼