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Drug decriminalization: what we can (and can’t) learn from Portugal

Hannah Laqueur, Ph.D. candidate, Berkeley Law | August 3, 2015

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized the acquisition, possession and personal use of small quantities of all psychoactive drugs. Drug use is still prohibited and subject to administrative sanction, but the law eliminated incarceration as a potential penalty. Portugal’s decriminalization law has been appropriated in U.S. drug policy discussions, mostly an example of a radical and successful … Continue reading »