Portugal’s Drug Decriminalization Laws Work

www.scientificamerican.com Portugal decriminalized possession of most substances in 2001, and since then their drug use rates have fallen dramatically, their overdose rates have dropped, HIV infections from shared needles have literally collapsed, and the prison population has fallen. California is considering legalizing marijuana possession, use, and growing for adults; if they do the Mexican drug war will calm down, and health will increase conversely. Right now the people in control of US drug law are a bunch of starched shirt idiots who haven’t used substances, haven’t actually done research on its effects, and are, by and large, merely parroting illogical and antiquated arguments from the 1920s through the 1990s, rather than reevaluating things.