[whats_a_quasar]

There are signs that policy is not going well: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/07/portugal-dru...

The state has a legitimate interest in limiting the number of people taking opioids in public. It's self-defeating to do that through mass incarceration. To be determined how well decriminalization works. But it's definitely not that the government just doesn't like drugs - hard drugs really do have societal costs.

[a_bonobo]

I think the article makes a point that is overlooked:

>After years of economic crisis, Portugal decentralized its drug oversight operation in 2012. A funding drop from 76 million euros ($82.7 million) to 16 million euros ($17.4 million) forced Portugal’s main institution to outsource work previously done by the state to nonprofit groups, including the street teams that engage with people who use drugs. The country is now moving to create a new institute aimed at reinvigorating its drug prevention programs.

Can't decriminalize drugs if you stop funding drug treatment programs and chuck it all onto underfunded NGOs who have their own motivations.

[bumby]

I think this underscores that these problems are more complicated than may want to acknowledge. I don't think you're doing this, but part of this thread started as a pushback to the simplistic sentiment that implied we just need to decriminalize.

As you point out, we can simultaneously criticize our current policies while acknowledging simplistic replacement policies aren't really solutions.