Portugal's experience with decriminalizing drugs... Interesting material.
I've read several more formal studies that primarily concentrate on two things: the impact on crime, and the impact on society more generally. In both areas Portugal has shown rather large improvements since 2002, when the country decriminalized drug possession. Most interesting to me is that the improvements track quite closely the major claims of American libertarians (including me!) who advocate decriminalization here: large decreases in property crimes, and large decreases in the number of young men in jail. One big surprise to me: Portugal is seeing much lower rates of domestic violence. Of course, with any studies such as these, there is no proof of causation. All we have is the lagging correlation, which is suggestive, but not proof...
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