Having a drug record (or ANY criminal record) is not a minor issue.

The problem with decriminalization of something as seemingly mundane as possession of drugs is that one of factors that make cracking down on drug traffic tough is that a lot of the actual dealing is done via mouth propaganda between non-dealers.

Possession wouldn't be that much of a problem if it were just effecting that single person. But more often than not the person is, unwillingly at times, a cog in the machine that makes part of the drug network in the local area.

As much as one might try to overlook individual drug abuse as self inflicted harm and personal choice, it is all part of a system that is being encouraged and at times carefully maintained by the actual pushers. One silly kid taking drugs is not uncommon to get some incentives from a pusher to share. And then it goes from one silly kid to being two silly kids ...

Decriminalization as you mentioned it isn't wrong, the problem is it's ineffective at stopping the system. It might help smoothing the effects, but it will at best only smooth out the waves of what can be a very deep lake. If you want to dry out the supply, you have to destroy the market for it, that means the demand and as cynical as it is, that only works if you go after the people who buy the drugs in one form or the other. And I'm aware that my opinion is hardlining here, but I don't feel there's much of a reason to put on the kids gloves for people who consciously decided to fuck their brains out with illegal substances. If they're too stupid to realize what they're getting into, then it's natural selection at its finest.

The other side of the medal is that rehabilitation for drug victims that actually want to get clean has to improve and law enforcement has to get the manpower to actually sweep the streets. Anything short of that is just going to selectively treat the public symptoms, out of sight out of mind, but it's never going to cure the disease that's continuously eating away at its victims.

Without knowing the full extent of Portugals initiative I'd say there's a lot more at work than just decriminalization. Afaik Portugal has being doing an educational campaign in schools and such to increase the awareness of drugs which I'd personally say is more likely to reduce drug related incidents than a more gentle touch on addicts caught with drugs.

I'm not saying that it doesn't help, but it's no solution. And a solution is what's needed. Society has long enough burrowed their heads in the sand and done little more than trying to keep the drugs off the public focus. The reason for that is simple costs. A proper campaign would require an insane amount of funds. Drugs are a billion business, one can't hope to work against that with peanuts.

What is needed is law enforcement funding to increase drastically. It's common knowledge that police, ambulance and such are criminally underfunded and overworked. It's no wonder they can't deal with the problem and they have other fields to work in on top of that.


1.) People need to know that drugs are destructive.
2,) People need proper channels to go to when they want help with drug related problems (and not just personal problems, how would you deal with a friend who's got hooked on drugs?).
3.) Police needs manpower to patrol the streets to reduce the coverage for dealers.
4.) Dedicated anti-narcotics squads need manpower to investigate, locate and crack down on the drug infrastructure.
5.) Customs and border patrols need manpower to tighten the envelope and fill gaps that are being used to get drugs in from outside.

All that is necessary. Any single one by itself isn't going to achieve squat.


Drugs are a social problem, not just a criminal one and as such needs a comprehensive effort to root it out.


My argument against decriminalization is largely based on the fact that background work alone isn't reaching the social aspect of the issue. People need to be aware of the problem AND deterred, otherwise people will do as people do all the time and delude themselves with the usual "I'll be fine, it only happens to others, I'm different" mentality that is ubiquitious for such percieved low-key crimes such as taking illegal substances. The argument that a person taking drugs is a strictly personal choice is a convenient lie and by now nothing short of hammering that realization into people seems to be adequate (in my personal opinion at least).

It would certainly help if the entertainment industry stopped glamorizing drug use, but "free speech."

I honestly am wondering if the coup was a setup for a power grab?

Not sure if staged, because Erdogan had it coming a long way, plus the Turkish Army is a traditional believer in the original values from Atatürk.

But from the looks of it Erdogan definately had a loooong list of undesirables and now the perfect opportunity to purge everyone on that list. Turkey has been on the slip for some time now with Erdogan, but he's going full dictator now.

Oh dear, Erdogan seems to have gone full Firelord Azula.