A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re‐examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs

Drug and Alcohol Review - Tập 31 Số 1 - Trang 101-113 - 2012
Caitlin Hughes1, Alex Stevens2
1Drug Policy Modelling Program; National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre; The University of New South Wales; Sydney Australia
2School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Chatham Maritime, Medway, UK

Tóm tắt

In this Harm Reduction Digest two observers and scholars of the 2001 Portuguese drug policy reform consider divergent accounts of the reform which viewed it as a ‘resounding success’ or a ‘disastrous failure’. Acknowledging from their own experience the inherent difficulties in studying drug law reform, Caitlin Hughes and Alex Stevens take the central competing claims of the protagonists and consider them against the available data. They remind us of the way all sides of the drug policy debates call upon and alternatively use or misuse ‘evidence’ to feed into discussions of the worth, efficacy and desirability of different illicit drug policies. In doing so they provide pause for thought for those of us who operate as drug policy researchers and drug policy advocates.

Simon Lenton

Co‐editor, Harm Reduction Digest

Từ khóa


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