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by irscott 2028 days ago
There are modern current examples of how decriminalization has positively affected countries where it's been tried. See Portugal where high school age students reported a massive drop in people trying the hard stuff for the first time, overdoses and new outbreaks of HIV and HEP C were drastically decreased, and money was spent on treatment and outreach rather than drug crackdowns which inevitably led some to get clean and others to lead more stable lifestyles.
1 comments

https://www.npr.org/2011/01/20/133086356/Mixed-Results-For-P...

Portugal is an interesting one. But you pain a one sided story.

So basically problematic usage has gone down. But regular legalized decriminalized recreational usage has gone up. So I picture it like coffee. More addicts everywhere but it's legal. Replace coffee with heroin and it's pretty much the same picture.

Is it better to live in a society where everyone does a cup of heroin in the morning and it's totally normal and no one is dysfunctional or is it better to have the heroin relegated to a few violent problematic users?

It makes sense. You decriminalize a crime you get less crimes. Maybe changing perspectives is the solution but then again maybe not.