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Portugal's drug decriminalization experience

GreyICE said:
So wait, they made drugs legal, but specifically made it impossible for them to tax the sale of drugs? So you have to pay tax when you buy a book, but not when you buy a joint?

Is there some sort of stupid epidemic going on?
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Well, that in itself is stupid, but it seems that Portugal is approaching being sensible by easy stages.

So far, their policy seems to be working in so far as it's achieving what it's meant to achieve.

Actual legalization and the tax revenues that accrue thereby might be more difficult: they are bound by international treaties.
 
Dr Adequate said:
Well, that in itself is stupid, but it seems that Portugal is approaching being sensible by easy stages.

So far, their policy seems to be working in so far as it's achieving what it's meant to achieve.

Actual legalization and the tax revenues that accrue thereby might be more difficult: they are bound by international treaties.
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I admit it's hard to take a leap from fear-mongering nonsense into sensible policy all in one go, but it really seems to me that they've failed to divert the income stream from drug smugglers and drug dealers (most of whom are genuinely Not Nice PeopleTM) into the government and legitimate businesses.

As for international treaties, I admit they're a bit of a problem. It's really hard to legalize the import of something that was probably illegal to grow and export, but at least they could legalize the sale of domestically produced narcotics. Hey, anything to help local farmers, right?

I don't know, I find this a crazy world when the US government has an easier time legitimizing military strikes to take out people producing cocaine than it does military strikes to take out people committing genocide.
 
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