<story><title>Kofi Annan on Why It&apos;s Time to Legalize Drugs</title><url>http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/kofi-annan-on-why-drug-bans-are-ineffective-a-1078402.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jfmfhhdkdkd</author><text>But Japan and Hong Kong and many others still have far lower drug use and crime rates despite their very tough laws on drug use, when compared to Portugal.</text></item><item><author>jdietrich</author><text>Portugal decriminalised personal possession of drugs 15 years ago, which has given us some useful evidence. HIV infection rates and drug-related deaths have reduced significantly, and the prison population has reduced by over 50%. The proportion of people who have ever used drugs has increased slightly, but there has been a reduction in the number of regular drug users.&lt;p&gt;We don&amp;#x27;t really know what would happen in a laissez-faire system, but we can be fairly confident that a medicalised approach would have substantial positive effects.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unodc.org&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;ungass2016&amp;#x2F;Contributions&amp;#x2F;Civil&amp;#x2F;Transform-Drug-Policy-Foundation&amp;#x2F;Drug-decriminalisation-in-Portugal.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unodc.org&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;ungass2016&amp;#x2F;Contributions&amp;#x2F;Civ...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>puranjay</author><text>I always wonder what would happen to drug use if it was widely and easily available. Would usage drop because it wouldn&amp;#x27;t be &amp;quot;rebellious&amp;quot; to get drugs?&lt;p&gt;That was at least the motivation for a lot of younger drug users I know.&lt;p&gt;In my country (India), there is a region in the Himalayas - Kasaul - where marijuana grows in the wild. It is so easily accessible that you can literally pluck some on a walk through the forest.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;d expect with such easy availability, the locals would be all addled on weed&amp;#x2F;hashish all the time. Yet, most locals tend to be non-users. Most users tend to be tourists and outsiders who come solely for the purportedly &amp;quot;best in the world&amp;quot; hashish</text></item><item><author>Synaesthesia</author><text>The drug problem was studied years ago by the RAND corporation and the US Military - a pure cost-benefit analysis. They found that treatment and education are the most cost effective way to deal with the drug problem, and that prohibition was the most costly and ineffective means of dealing with it.&lt;p&gt;Therefore the government understands that the war on drugs is likely to be unsuccessful, and we have to ask ourselves, why do they persist with it? A few reasons present themselves: Ideological motivations, they just don&amp;#x27;t like the drugs. The fact that if you terrify the population you can use that as means for greater political control and discipline. And the fact that Tobacco and Alcohol companies would likely suffer as a result of drug legalisation, like cannabis.&lt;p&gt;Lastly the CIA has been found to be involved in the drug trade on a vast scale. This is not a conspiracy, there are many well-documented books on this. They need large sums of untraceable money for clandestine operations, and drugs are an ideal source of this.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rand.org&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;monograph_reports&amp;#x2F;MR331.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rand.org&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;monograph_reports&amp;#x2F;MR331.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Noam Chomsky on the War on Drugs: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=Q-JX0yXDlh8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=Q-JX0yXDlh8&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ZeroGravitas</author><text>The article states that research shows no correlation between severe drug penalties and usage levels.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a few people offering anecdotes to counter that, but obviously actual research wins, the difference between Portugal and Japan are therefore likely to be cultural differences outside of strict drug laws.</text></comment>
<story><title>Kofi Annan on Why It&apos;s Time to Legalize Drugs</title><url>http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/kofi-annan-on-why-drug-bans-are-ineffective-a-1078402.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jfmfhhdkdkd</author><text>But Japan and Hong Kong and many others still have far lower drug use and crime rates despite their very tough laws on drug use, when compared to Portugal.</text></item><item><author>jdietrich</author><text>Portugal decriminalised personal possession of drugs 15 years ago, which has given us some useful evidence. HIV infection rates and drug-related deaths have reduced significantly, and the prison population has reduced by over 50%. The proportion of people who have ever used drugs has increased slightly, but there has been a reduction in the number of regular drug users.&lt;p&gt;We don&amp;#x27;t really know what would happen in a laissez-faire system, but we can be fairly confident that a medicalised approach would have substantial positive effects.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unodc.org&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;ungass2016&amp;#x2F;Contributions&amp;#x2F;Civil&amp;#x2F;Transform-Drug-Policy-Foundation&amp;#x2F;Drug-decriminalisation-in-Portugal.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.unodc.org&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;ungass2016&amp;#x2F;Contributions&amp;#x2F;Civ...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>puranjay</author><text>I always wonder what would happen to drug use if it was widely and easily available. Would usage drop because it wouldn&amp;#x27;t be &amp;quot;rebellious&amp;quot; to get drugs?&lt;p&gt;That was at least the motivation for a lot of younger drug users I know.&lt;p&gt;In my country (India), there is a region in the Himalayas - Kasaul - where marijuana grows in the wild. It is so easily accessible that you can literally pluck some on a walk through the forest.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;d expect with such easy availability, the locals would be all addled on weed&amp;#x2F;hashish all the time. Yet, most locals tend to be non-users. Most users tend to be tourists and outsiders who come solely for the purportedly &amp;quot;best in the world&amp;quot; hashish</text></item><item><author>Synaesthesia</author><text>The drug problem was studied years ago by the RAND corporation and the US Military - a pure cost-benefit analysis. They found that treatment and education are the most cost effective way to deal with the drug problem, and that prohibition was the most costly and ineffective means of dealing with it.&lt;p&gt;Therefore the government understands that the war on drugs is likely to be unsuccessful, and we have to ask ourselves, why do they persist with it? A few reasons present themselves: Ideological motivations, they just don&amp;#x27;t like the drugs. The fact that if you terrify the population you can use that as means for greater political control and discipline. And the fact that Tobacco and Alcohol companies would likely suffer as a result of drug legalisation, like cannabis.&lt;p&gt;Lastly the CIA has been found to be involved in the drug trade on a vast scale. This is not a conspiracy, there are many well-documented books on this. They need large sums of untraceable money for clandestine operations, and drugs are an ideal source of this.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rand.org&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;monograph_reports&amp;#x2F;MR331.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rand.org&amp;#x2F;pubs&amp;#x2F;monograph_reports&amp;#x2F;MR331.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Noam Chomsky on the War on Drugs: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=Q-JX0yXDlh8&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=Q-JX0yXDlh8&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zdw</author><text>Japan and HK both have significant organized crime that controls the flow of drugs into the country and drives the price way up.  In Japan&amp;#x27;s case the Yakuza has effectively banned certain drugs they consider &amp;quot;too dangerous&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Source: I had Japanese roommates in college who turned out to be potheads. They raved about the super-cheap marijuana they could get in the US, which was 1&amp;#x2F;5 to 1&amp;#x2F;10th the price as was available in Japan.</text></comment>