Reuter skeptical of Cato Institute claims on Portuguese drug policy
Comments in Time story that drug-use cycles may better account for declines.
In 2001, Portugal became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Yet analysts and policymakers are wondering whether the new policy really works. A recently released report by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined, rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, and the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
In the April 26, 2009, Time article, Peter Reuter, an MPRC Faculty Associate and Professor of Criminology and Public Policy, demonstrates he is more skeptical. He conceded in a presentation at the Cato Institute that “it's fair to say that decriminalization in Portugal has met its central goal. Drug use did not rise." However, he notes that Portugal is a small country and that the cyclical nature of drug epidemics — which tends to occur no matter what policies are in place — may account for the declines in heroin use and deaths.