Decriminalization Of Drugs And Its Effect On The Number Of Crimes And Homicides

Portugal's success would be the ideal model for Canada to base decriminalization of illicit drugs. Although Canada does not have as much of a drug epidemic that Portugal had before decriminalization, statistics show the country has rising rates of both heroin and meth use. Treating this evident problem with a different approach has been gathering heavy support over the years. Support behind this legal movement in Canada includes the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and the Green Party of Canada. Not only were drugs decriminalized in Portugal, the entire system was reconstructed to aid those addicted. Both the reduce in law enforcement towards illicit drugs and the increase in funding towards treatment paid off greatly for Portugal. Overdose death went down by 72% while the spread of HIV went down by 94%. Canada has prioritized the war on drugs, although the method being followed does not prove effective. It might prove better to abandon this current war in favour for public health, following Portugal's lead in providing harm reduction treatment and treating the addiction as the public health crisis that it

Countries all over the world are dealing with a rise of drug use and drug-related public health concerns. Many nations adopt vaguely similar methods of battling the “War on Drugs”, from strict border control to harsh criminal punishments for drug-related offenders, violent or not. Even with these efforts put in place, many places are not seeing the desired results. Drug use is mainly treated like a crime, and that may be the problem. Countries that have concerns with rising drug use among their citizens should follow Portugal in decriminalizing the possession and use of small quantities of all illicit drugs.

For many years, a real push has been looming on the idea of legalizing now illegal drugs. This has become a hot debate throughout nations all over the world, from all walks of life. The dispute over the idea of decriminalizing illegal drugs is and will continue on as an ongoing conflict. In 2001, Drug decriminalization in all drugs, including cocaine and heroin, became a nationwide law in Portugal (Greenwald). Ethan Nadelman, essayist of “Think again: Drugs,” states his side of the story on the continuing criminalization of hard drugs, in which he stand to oppose. Whether it is for the good of human rights or not, decriminalizing drugs may be a good head start for a new beginning.

There are many major factors at one point time in society, the most controversial is drug decriminalization. When the topic of drug or drug related discussion arises, many individuals would choose to ignore the topic entirely. Why not approach the topic head on? Attack the issue at its roots and refuse to give up until proven wrong. Drug decriminalization is a topic that needs to be brought to the front of discussion with politics and legislation. State and federal laws should be readjusted and in many cases removed in regards to drug policy. As a society, we need to treat the way we handle drug users and drug cases differently. Our current approach is not working anymore, and it’s time for a change. To change, everything has to change from the start.

The issue of drug policy is one that has plagued our society for decades now, and will continue to linger until we finally become proactive make some bold decisions. With over twenty thousand deaths each year, in Canada alone, due to illicit substances , this is a problem that must be addressed immediately. Many people know where to turn when they have alcohol addiction issues, most turn to Alcoholics Anonymous for example. Smokers are also offered many incentives and advertisements that deter smoking and help them in their struggle to quit. But, there has been no major campaign or well known foundation to seek help in if you are having problems with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, LSD, or marijuana. Our problem in Canada is that these drugs are seen as merely a judicial and criminal issue, rather than a public issue which affects each and every one of us in society. In this essay, I will prove that the decriminalization, by the government of all drugs and implementing education on drugs instead will lead to a decline in drug related deaths and social issues.

Portugal decriminalized all drugs back in 2001. Since then they have seen a constant decrease in drug related deaths. Portugal had 80 drug-related deaths in 2001, and that continued to decrease to only 18 drug

Drugs have played a part of the United States of America criminal justice fabric for generations. The scare tactics of the 1960s gave way to the contradictory messages of the late ’70s and early ’80s. In the 1970’s drugs became glamorous and recreational to many citizens. Prior to the 1970’s, citizens that abuse drugs was seen by policymakers as suffering from a social disease that could only be helped by treatment. Policymakers posture change drastically in the mid 70’s. In 1973, only twelve percent of the population reported to the Gallup poll that they had tried drugs. By 1977, that number was doubled. Notably, in 1978, 66 percent of Americans said Marijuana was becoming a serious issue in their respective communities (Riley, K.

Until the early 20th century, Americans were legally able to obtain drugs such as cocaine, cannabis, and heroin. In fact, these types of drugs were found in medicines and drinks such as Coca-Cola. By the early 1900s, between 250,000-500,000 Americans were addicted to drugs. This rise of addiction in the United States created a growing public concern that addiction would become a more widespread issue, and they felt this problem needed a government solution. For example, in 1875, the first restrictive legislation concerning drugs began in San Francisco when a law was passed to limit the use of opium dens in public indoor establishments. Almost 100 years later, the Controlled Substance Act was passed in 1970. Shortly after, Richard Nixon declared

The “War on drugs” has shaped various aspects of public and criminal justice policy. The linkage between drug use and crime has been unaddressed problem over the past decades. New laws have been passed to deter drug involvement and increase penalties for drug related crime. The war on drugs has increase many court room dockets and higher incarceration rates. This war has caused a lot of disparity in communities because “Crack” was the poor man’s drug and due to the get tough tactics that the government was trying to enforce throughout this time cause the African American’s were hit harder with convictions due to the use of crack and causes more incarceration rates. Many would believe that the US has benefited from the war on drugs because our

The Alcohol and other drug (AOD) field is dynamic and fluid and is constantly being shaped by a variety of forces (The Department of Health, 2004). Illicit drug use is a widespread issue around the world, posturing significant social and economic costs to the health care system, justice department and social welfare systems in both developing and developed countries (Damrongplasit, Hsiao, & Zhao, 2012). Criminal Justice and addictive drugs have been tangled in Australia and internationally for a century or more. Ever since the addictive and destructive properties were discover within certain drugs, officials have declared the production, distribution, sale and possession of drugs to be illegal (Sherman & Valenta, 2015).

To establish whether or not the NSFAD has had any effect of drug usage a drug usage baseline must be established. Moreira found that, according to a 2001 survey conducted by the EMCDDA experimenting with drugs or recent drug use was not a major problem among the general population ages 15-64 (20). However, this statistic should not be taken with certainty because, as Loo et al. points out the before the NSFAD, “Portuguese data on drug usage are scant and not reliable” (51). This leaves one to evaluate trends following the passage of the NSFAD, seeing as reporting improved with the establishment of the IDT as a regulating and reporting body. Greenwald offers statistics on drug usage, or what is referred to as prevalence, claiming that, “Prevalence rates for the 15–24 age group have increased only very slightly, whereas the rates for the critical 15–19 age group—critical because such a substantial number of young citizens begin drug usage during these years—have actually decreased in absolute terms since decriminalization” (14). Despite this apparent reduction in usage by 15-19 year olds Greenwald found that, “For other age groups of older citizens, increases in lifetime prevalence rates for drugs generally have ranged from slight to mild” (12). This displays that while prevalence may be decreasing to some extent amongst minors overall drug prevalence has increased among the

By decriminalizing all drugs, governments can minimize overdose rates. Deaths due to drug use have decreased significantly, from approximately 80 in 2001, to 16 in 2012 (The Portugal Experiment …). In 2011 Portugal decided to decriminalize the use of all drugs. This included drugs such as heroin and cocaine, and unleashed a major public health campaign to tackle addiction. As a result, Portugal’s drug addiction has been treated more as a medical challenge rather than as a criminal justice issue. Due to the decriminalization of drugs in Portugal, more people with drug problems have come forward and asked for help. With that, it has lowered the over dose rate

In 2001, the European Monitoring Centre for Dugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) enacted the new drug policy in Portugal. The new law focused on the decriminalization of drug use. In their words, this “comprises removal of a conduct or activity from the sphere of criminal law. Prohibition remains the rule, but sanctions for use (and its preparatory acts) no longer fall within the framework of the criminal law.” Notice the wording focused on the fact that drug use was still a societal obstacle even with the new law. The reason for such a drastic policy shift was due to staggering statics centered on the rise of drug usage. The political reasons for the shift to decriminalization was due to the increases in drug abuse and the other diseases that

Drug abuse and predatory criminality go hand in hand in a few, select social groups, while in others, drug abuse most often occurs without criminal behavior (other than the fact they’re doing drugs.) Despite what most might think, drug abuse typically follows predatory criminality. As drug abusers keep trying harder drugs due to necessity, the intensity of their criminal behavior escalates dramatically. When using more than one type of drug at one time, studies show that the frequency of criminal activity increases. But, when these drug offenders decrease the amount of drugs they put in their system, their rate of criminal activity also decreases, which shows that drugs can cause a person to commit crime. This shows that drug usage can cause crime and stopping drug usage can slow or even halt criminal activity.

Drugs are a very strong controversy and people have such strong opinions about whether or not they should be legal or not. I don’t have a strong opinion on this topic, I am easily swayed to either side. For the most part though, I think that they should be legalized because people already do them anyways and will continue to do them. If they were legal then the government could regulate their usage and sale then the government was receiving the profits rather that the drug dealers.