I remember learning about it in school as a special feature of British parliamentary tradition, so I always assumed it's been like that for a very long time.
It is there
COVID and Ukraine war were absolute gifts for those that delivered Brexit.
We need to look at Portugal for a functioning policy on drugs. It's a proven case study that demonstrates how backward our whole philosophy is.
Last time I was there, in Porto, I had ropey-looking individuals trying to sell me what was purported to be weed every couple of hundred metres, so not sure they're the gold standard of drug policy.
A complete myth.
I came across some youths who had bought helium by mistake. They were very disrespectful. I told them I wouldn't be spoken to in that tone...
I dont think the availability of weed is the most relevant aspect of a drug policy. People not dying, prisons not being full, low rates of drug use are better measures where portugal are ahead of the vast majority of european countries having been one of the worst.
They were selling more than weed. I don't particularly care that they do, although it got boring being accosted by them. It's more that it didn't exactly paint a picture of a country in control of its drug situation when there are dealers on every other street corner. Fine if the numbers stack up, but I've never been approached as often for drugs as I was on that trip anywhere in the world.
It's not pointless, it's a fact and as you yourself said, 'that's what decriminalisation brings'. Whether it's the lesser of two evils is a different question.
Near Faro on a family holiday, getting the same offer every fifty yards in a marketplace. Starts off with some random asshole offering you a shitty looking gold chain, and when you don't take them up on that offer you get the side eyed whispering "hashish?" Dad got his wallet pinched in the same market and the police accused him of lying about it. Good times.
