{"id":8508,"date":"2012-09-13T12:47:43","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T12:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=8508"},"modified":"2012-09-13T12:47:43","modified_gmt":"2012-09-13T12:47:43","slug":"portugal-drug-experiment-not-a-success-at-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2012\/09\/portugal-drug-experiment-not-a-success-at-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Portugal \u2013 Drug Experiment Not a success at all."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nIn a recent Editorial in Medical Journal Australia Wodak calls for Australia drug policy reform based on Portugal \u201cimproved outcomes and declined problematic drug use\u201d since decriminalization. <\/p>\n

Drug decriminalization in Portugal is a failure despite of various reports like this one published all over the world pretending the opposite (1, 2). <\/p>\n

There is a complete and absurd campaign of manipulation of Portuguese drug policy facts and figures, which Wodak appears to have fallen for. This is not the academic standard we expect from MJA. <\/p>\n

As the Executive Office of the President Barak Obama Drug Control Policy, states (3) <\/p>\n

\u201cit is safe to say that claims by drug legalization advocates regarding the impact of Portugal’s drug policy exceed the existing scientific basis\u201d. <\/p>\n

Let\u00b4s focus on Nuno Miranda \u2013 a drug dependent Portuguese car parker, speech: \u201cI am lucky to live in a society that has accepted the fact that drugs and addiction are part of life\u201d (4) <\/p>\n

By making drug consumption less difficult, drug dependents throughout the world become neglected, have shorter and more difficult lives and reproduce this poor situation to their children. <\/p>\n

Sir, <\/p>\n

Do you want Australia to be populated by gentlemen like Nuno? <\/p>\n

Kofi Annan definitively does not. <\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people need models that may help them to find a positive way \u2013 a way without drugs. The eradication of drug abuse from our Planet is a giant task, but with the human organizations joint effort from all levels and the struggle of all, we can move forward to that direction\u201d (5). <\/p>\n

References: <\/p>\n

1. The figures related to the prevalence in the Portuguese population show that the percentage of people who have tried illicit drugs at least once in their lifetime increased from 7,8% (800 000 people) in 2001 to 12% (1,3 million) in 2007 (Portuguese ex- IDT 2008 November Activities Report). <\/p>\n

2. \u201cThe highest mortality rates caused by HIV \/ AIDS among drug users were reported by Portugal, followed by Estonia, Spain, Latvia and Italy. In most other countries the rates are low” (EMCDDA, 2010 Annual Report). <\/p>\n

3. DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION IN PORTUGAL: CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS- www.whitehouse.gov\/…\/portugal_fact_sheet_8-25-10.pdf <\/p>\n

4. Specter M, Getting a Fix, The New Yorker, 2011 Oct; 17. <\/p>\n

5. Annan K, International Day Against the Abusing and Illicit Traffic on Drugs. New
\n<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent Editorial in Medical Journal Australia Wodak calls for Australia drug policy reform based on Portugal \u201cimproved outcomes and declined problematic drug use\u201d since decriminalization. Drug decriminalization in Portugal is a failure despite of various reports like this one published all over the world pretending the opposite (1, 2). There is a complete […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction","category-europe-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}