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Hul-Gil comments on How theism works - Less Wrong
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Comments (38)
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Why? I was quite glad to see it. The drug war is a "uniquely awful" example itself, being something no longer based on evidence but manufacturing it, and worse - perhaps humorously so, if only it were fiction - causing the very things it supposedly acts to prevent: death, disease, suffering, economic and social cost, and drug addiction. (Yes! Portugal and Prague show us what happens when personal use is decriminalized: fewer drug users!).
Religion is the most exaggerated one can get when detached from evidence; the drug war is, perhaps, the most corrupt.
Link-following leads to the actual paper (pdf, 4 MB). It quotes an official-sounding institute. It's not very good, though - decriminalization was in 2001, but it rarely shows pre-2001 data. There's a clear decrease in drug-related deaths, not much else.
If this really leads to fewer users, this is surprising new information. I'd expect "more use, but overall less harm", and wouldn't be surprised by "more users, but overall less use", but I can't see why there'd be fewer users. Either my model is false or this story is wrong!
Well, that's just one Google result (try "drug use portugal" or "drug use decriminalization") - I've seen several articles about drug use decreasing in the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Portugal after each nation decriminalized some or all drugs.
I would imagine that this is because (in Portugal, at least) instead of arrest, users are required to attend counseling and support groups (and it's much easier to seek help when one needn't fear arrest). These groups are designed mostly to help people stop using drugs, and I would bet they work at least a small percent of the time.