For those of you who are well versed with the best show on TV ever (The Wire), the word Hamsterdam means a lot. For those of you who do not I am going to introduce the main character of Season 3 and explain why I am talking about it now.
Season 3 of "The Wire" is a brilliant portrayal of a struggle of a police officer (Bunny Colvin) to try to solve the problem of drugs and related crimes in the City of Baltimore.
His solution to the problem is legalizing drugs in certain areas of the city. This area pegged "Hamsterdam" by the people and its dynamics are very interesting.
The reason I thought of this now, was because I saw this article in Times.
At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.
So they really did try "Hamsterdam" somewhere
And what are the results?
The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."
It is very fascinating and mind boggling to see the solution drug wars / drug abuse is actually legalizing drugs.
This makes me believe even more strongly what I always thought - "Wire is not fiction. Its real!"
For those of you who have never seen the show, here are the intros to the 5 seasons.