[simonh]

Except the Portuguese model, which I’m in favour of, does not ‘decriminalise drugs’. It decriminalises drug use, while still keeping hard drugs illegal to sell or exchange for a profit. What this does is keep users out if prisons and protects medical and social services professionals that help them with e.g. clean needles.

I do think the decriminalisation of the sale of marijuana is a reasonable step, but it’s fundamentally got nothing to do with the Portuguese model.

Norway seems to be taking the same route, so hopefully we’ll see more data to back up the success of this model in future.

[dvduval]

If I understand correctly about Portugal, I believe people can obtain drugs legally at government locations where they distribute the drug, but also have the ability to receive treatment for addiction. I don't know if there are some drugs like marijuana they can buy legally, or if even marijuana is illegal. Surely there aren't a bunch of people obtaining marijuana for free at the government office? Or are they?

[simonh]

I think Portugal prescribes some substitute drugs like methodone to some addicts as part of rehabilitation therapy, but this isn’t unique to Portugal and isn’t really a significant part of the overall strategy except to treat addiction as primarily a health issue.

Of course that’s a lot easier to do in countries with universal health care. I wish we took this approach more here in the UK.

[GordonS]

> I wish we took this approach more here in the UK

As do I, but given UK politics, it's unlikely to happen.

Both Labour and the Conservatives jump on drug control as a political points scoring mechanism, fueled (as always) by the tabloid press. As usual, it's "politics before people".

The fairly recent Psychoactive Substances Act, which makes just about everything illegal (except alcohol, caffeine, nicotine), shows just how progressive drug policy is in the UK.