Eleven countries were studied and one common conclusion was found, that drug policies don’t work. In the UK the government has been making comparisons of international drug laws and came up with the first official recognition since 1971. In 1971, there was the Misuse of Drugs Act that shows there is no direct effect with being tough on drugs and the world’s drug problem
The report is based on an intense study of drug laws in 11 different countries ranging Uruguay to the zero tolerance policy in Japan. The report has been signed off by both Theresa May who is the Conservative home secretary, Norman Baker the Liberal Democrat crime prevention minister.
The home office of civil servants wrote the final copy of the report which states:
“We did not in our fact-finding observe any obvious relationship between the toughness of a country’s enforcement against drug possession, and levels of drug use in that country,” it says. “The Czech Republic and Portugal have similar approaches to possession, where possession of small amounts of any drug does not lead to criminal proceedings, but while levels of drug use in Portugal appear to be relatively low, reported levels of cannabis use in the Czech Republic are among the highest in Europe.
“Indicators of levels of drug use in Sweden, which has one of the toughest approaches we saw, point to relatively low levels of use, but not markedly lower than countries with different approaches.”
The report also says that the experiments in legalization now under way in the US states of Washington and Colorado, and in Uruguay, should be watched with interest. This is a world away from the “war on drugs” rhetoric that has formed the mainstay of the political debate on drugs in the past four decades.
In Portugal, where personal use was decriminalized nearly 11 years ago and those arrested for drugs are given the choice of going before a health board and seeking treatment or facing time in jail. The country has seen a decrease in both abuse and drug related crimes over the years.
“Trend data from Portugal shows how levels of drug use changed in the years following decriminalization in 2001. Although levels of drug use rose between 2001 and 2007, use of drugs has since fallen to below 2001 levels. It is clear that there has not been a lasting and significant increase in drug use in Portugal since 2001,” the report says.
With reports like these hopefully opening the eyes of some of the higher ups that have the power to change the laws in countries worldwide. Billions of dollars are put into the war on drugs in America every single year, with drug abuse rates on the rise it is obvious that it is not doing anything to help combat the problem. If the money used on drug policies that don’t work and was put towards drug education and rehabs we would hopefully see a decrease in both addiction rates and overdoses.
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