I live in The Philippines and we still have a massive drug problem. Plus a lot of dead people, some of whom might have been involved in drugs. What the President has done is to give the green light to shooting anyone you don't like and then tossing a piece of cardboard with the words "drug addict" onto the body; there will be a minimum of investigation takes place.

So no, you wouldn't want it in the UK.

There would be loads of shot addicts in peoples back gardens/houses and sheds while they are in the process of financing their vile habit.

Would be less real "victims" of drug taking.

Just like the gun laws in Australia, there was a drop in gun related deaths due to other interventions aside from tightening the law regards automatic weapons that actually had by far the greatest difference.

From TRANSFORM one of the voices regards drug controls.
"However, such improvements are not solely the result of the decriminalisation policy; Portugal’s shift towards a more health-centred approach to drugs, as well as wider health and social policy changes, are equally, if not more, responsible for the positive changes observed."

"Portugal complemented its policy of decriminalisation by allocating greater resources across the drugs field, expanding and improving prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social reintegration programmes. The introduction of these measures coincided with an expansion of the Portuguese welfare state, which included a guaranteed minimum income. While decriminalisation played an important role, it is likely that the positive outcomes described below would not have been achieved without these wider health and social reforms"

The mentioned deaths of 3 per million is due to OVERDOSING in ADULTS ON THE STREET, not long term use, not those considered to be under adult age and yet comparisons are made to total deaths from all drug related deaths before decriminalisation, again, this is yet more statistical massaging. Sure for families of those that were drug users this is a good thing, however the supposed drop of 80 overdose deaths as per your link to 30 over a 15/16 year period is in my honest opinion NOT significant, you will also note that there has being a doubling of overdose deaths from 2012 to 2015 12 reported in 2012 to 3 per million in 2015 (Portugal pop circa 10M). what are the figures for all years, either overdose on the street or deaths from drug use overall? In a country that already had historically low deaths comparative to other EU states at the time of decriminalisation and comparing rates by country from 2001 to 2016/17 is just wrong/misrepresents the facts.

Also, aside from the stated change in how drug use was addressed from a health POV and access to health treatment changed massively, you also have the fact that the Portuguese economy had being in freefall for much of the last 25 years, of the last few years that has recovered quite a lot, employment rates are up, manufacturing and low grade employment wages are up, more people in work means fewer people taking drugs, this is a known fact.

So, yes, the headline figure from the latest results is a drop but drug deaths were already at/or below the EU average back in 2001 BEFORE decriminalisation and other interventions and economy has by far a greater effect than simply decriminalisation in itself. To believe that decriminalisation would work in any given country is patently not backed up by actual facts.
HTH

no, certainly not a gunning down on the street but evidence based and via a judgement of ones peers. if you are caught dealing drugs you are removed from society forever at no further financial burden to the rest of society never mind not destroying peoples lives. Equally murderers and other heinous criminals that society will not miss nor do we want to pay billions to keep them in a certain standard of living only for them to be put back into society at some point so they can repeat such.
yup soft on crime always works out!

Really that''s your answwer for someone who say has been caught knocking out £50 of weed to a friend, or even something more serious like an ounce of coke or whatever, is to remove them from society forever, wow I've I got the wrong end of the stick here because I've never heard that even from the harshest critcs of drugs.

If it's a known fact that more people in work means fewer drugs,how do you explain say Scotland who hit a 26 year low of 3.8% unemployment rate, but yet has massive drug problems (biggest users of Coke in the world per Capita apparently) and had 160 drug related deaths per 1million, by far the most. Similarly England & Wales have relatively low unemployment rates of around 4.5%, but are known as one of the biggest users of drugs around Europe (highest amount of heroin users in Europe) & have 66 drug related deaths per million. But one of the highest unemployment rates going in Europe at 21% is Greece and although their issues with drugs has increased, it is still incredibly low compared to just about every European Country. I'd say things such as social & economic issues play the biggest role in drug use. You only have to look at Countries such as the US, UK and even Aus to see it's not that straight forward.

From my point of view what still beggars belief is that a professional sports star is taking a banned stimulant, probably within hours of a major game given the likely metabolism rate, and we are still talking about having him let off because it was recreational. According to WADA that would have been a legitimate response of it was not within the timeframe considered as in competition.

Go on the other Cas forum and read the posts of a poster called "Mysterio".

Please don't think we all share such views. I'm not in the camp for stringing him up totally but he deserves a ban and I'm content if Cas terminated his contract. People saying bans shouldn't be imposed for recreational drugs leave my looking to the high heavens. Zak is a marvellous player but he's tarnished Cas with his actions. He needs to take responsibility and grow up if he is to ever play super league again.

Your statement has no facts that mean anything. You are comparing ONE year, that's utterly meaningless. How about some stats for the preceding years?
A big problem doesn't go away instantaneously and you've not presented any before or after facts have you? I clearly didn't say employment rates are the be all and all, ffs bother to read it in entirety, there are other interventions that have a greater affect but employment levels do have an impact, this is information that is seen over not just a couple of years and a country or two but many countries and decades of statistics, where are yours?
Outliers and areas with deep rooted issues, ones that are so massive as per your number for Scotland are not going to change overnight, to believe so is patently stupid and ignorant.
Scotland is properly f'ckd, their government can't control its finances, they are worse than Westminster, it has no money to spend on treating druggies and running health programmes like the one in Portugal when it can't even manage its own money on the very basics that society needs. They want independence but they are in no position to be able to run the country themselves, one years employment results is not going to have much impact on a country in such a f'cked up state.

I don't I actually find most Cas fans have accepted the situation for what is. I just find the suggestion that all 18-26 year olds want to do on a weekend is sniff coke hilarious.