When you think about the war on drugs the main things that come to your mind are that they are illegal and can cause serious health problems. Colombia is the main contributor to the making and transportation of illegal drugs from Latin America to the Canadian border and beyond. Ever since President Reagan declared a war on drugs in 1971 the use and import of these drugs have skyrocketed. With the demand for drugs increasing and the easy access from south America into central America to transport drugs, it was no wonder that many people took advantage of this lucrative movement. Even in 2016, Colombia is still a country known and feared for its drug trafficking organizations but now instead of focusing on stopping this problem it is more of
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It gives the framework of how the law works and also what the government is doing to change the law each year in order to make it work for the Portuguese people. “Portugal remains the only EU member state with a law explicitly declaring drugs to be decriminalized” while other states only have measures against certain drugs like marijuana. Drug use has not gone up in Portugal since the law has been up in place but continues to remain one of the lowest in the European Union. This is a great example of how decriminalization can change what is going on in Colombia and perhaps help the people. This book shows that through the data “ judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success.” Instead of sending people to jail putting them in treatment centers or somewhere they feel protective of other things is what is needed to change Colombia from a drug war zone to something more …show more content…
However, I believe there is a difference between making sure no one takes drugs and realizing you can not control a population and instead of trying to help them. Colombia and Portugal and two different countries but that do not mean that the practices that have helped Portugal can not, in turn, help Colombia as well. Portugal was the country colonizing while Colombia was the country that was colonized. You can not forget the history of violence and difficult landscape that has caused the country to be unable to fully unite. Leaders have come up to help the people but instead of help they created a drug cartel. Instead of treating it like a problem of just one type of people it is something that is universal. Addiction is something that can be passed down from your parents just like eye coloring and should be treated as a health problem instead of criminalized. Which is why I think that instead of throwing people into jail and letting them try to stop drugs cold turkey they can, in turn, help them get
It gives the framework of how the law works and also what the government is doing to change the law each year in order to make it work for the Portuguese people. “Portugal remains the only EU member state with a law explicitly declaring drugs to be decriminalized” while other states only have measures against certain drugs like marijuana. Drug use has not gone up in Portugal since the law has been up in place but continues to remain one of the lowest in the European Union. This is a great example of how decriminalization can change what is going on in Colombia and perhaps help the people. This book shows that through the data “ judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success.” Instead of sending people to jail putting them in treatment centers or somewhere they feel protective of other things is what is needed to change Colombia from a drug war zone to something more …show more content…
However, I believe there is a difference between making sure no one takes drugs and realizing you can not control a population and instead of trying to help them. Colombia and Portugal and two different countries but that do not mean that the practices that have helped Portugal can not, in turn, help Colombia as well. Portugal was the country colonizing while Colombia was the country that was colonized. You can not forget the history of violence and difficult landscape that has caused the country to be unable to fully unite. Leaders have come up to help the people but instead of help they created a drug cartel. Instead of treating it like a problem of just one type of people it is something that is universal. Addiction is something that can be passed down from your parents just like eye coloring and should be treated as a health problem instead of criminalized. Which is why I think that instead of throwing people into jail and letting them try to stop drugs cold turkey they can, in turn, help them get