New South American President halts drug decriminalization experiment due to ‘addicted children
A Lesson from Latin America: New South American President Orders End to Drug Decriminalization Experiment
American liberals have been receiving some troubling news from Latin America recently. Not only did Argentina elect a libertarian supporter of former President Donald Trump as their new president, but another South American leader has also overturned a long-standing policy that leftists in the United States have been advocating for.
Perhaps progressives can take a page from their southern neighbors’ book.
Daniel Noboa was sworn in Thursday as Ecuador’s president, a role that citizens are demanding he uses to restore the public safety that drug cartels and other criminal organizations robbed them of at the decade’s start. https://t.co/vJcM5hiANs
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) November 23, 2023
According to Agence France-Presse, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has reversed the policy of decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs. He believes that this policy encourages drug trafficking in schools and contributes to a generation of addicted children.
The policy applied to personal use of up to 10 grams of marijuana, 2 grams of cocaine paste, 1 gram of cocaine, 0.10 grams of heroin, and 0.04 grams of amphetamine, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
The previous president, socialist Rafael Correa, implemented this policy a decade ago, but Noboa, who took office just a day ago, has seen enough of its negative consequences.
Ecuador has experienced a surge in violence as rival gangs with connections to Mexican and Colombian cartels fight for control. Homicides have quadrupled in recent years, reaching a record high of 26 per 100,000 inhabitants. The situation is only expected to worsen.
In short, this is a clear example of the law of unexpected consequences. Well-intentioned social policy changes based on ideology rather than reality often lead to unpleasant results.
Oregon, for instance, decriminalized the possession of small amounts of hard drugs in 2020. However, this move has resulted in increased drug use and more overdose deaths. Even top Democratic lawmakers who supported the law are now open to revisiting it due to the alarming rise in synthetic opioid deaths.
California and Philadelphia have also faced challenges with their attempts to implement similar policies. Left-leaning lawmakers in California were vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, and Philadelphia’s Democratic-dominated city council had to pass a ban on “safe consumption” sites.
Advocates of drug legalization argue that users are victims, not criminals, and that punishing small-time users only exacerbates the problem. However, Ecuador’s experience over the past decade serves as documented proof that decriminalizing drugs like cocaine and heroin brings more harm than good, especially to vulnerable populations like children.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that American leftists will learn from these real-world examples and change their stance on drug decriminalization.
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The post New South American President Orders End to Drug Decriminalization Experiment: ‘A Whole Generation of Addicted Children’ appeared first on The Western Journal.
What negative consequences has Ecuador experienced due to the decriminalization policy
Title>A Lesson from Latin America: New South American President Orders End to Drug Decriminalization Experiment
A Lesson from Latin America: New South American President Orders End to Drug Decriminalization Experiment
American liberals have been receiving some troubling news from Latin America recently. Not only did Argentina elect a libertarian supporter of former President Donald Trump as their new president, but another South American leader has also overturned a long-standing policy that leftists in the United States have been advocating for.
Perhaps progressives can take a page from their southern neighbors’ book.
Daniel Noboa was sworn in Thursday as Ecuador’s president, a role that citizens are demanding he uses to restore the public safety that drug cartels and other criminal organizations robbed them of at the decade’s start. https://t.co/vJcM5hiANs
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) November 23, 2023
According to Agence France-Presse, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has reversed the policy of decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs. He believes that this policy encourages drug trafficking in schools and contributes to a generation of addicted children.
The policy applied to personal use of up to 10 grams of marijuana, 2 grams of cocaine paste, 1 gram of cocaine, 0.10 grams of heroin, and 0.04 grams of amphetamine, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
The previous president, socialist Rafael Correa, implemented this policy a decade ago, but Noboa, who took office just a day ago, has seen enough of its negative consequences.
Ecuador has experienced a surge in violence as rival gangs with connections to Mexican and Colombian cartels fight for control. Homicides have quadrupled in recent years, reaching a record high of 26 per 100,000 inhabitants. The situation is only expected to worsen.
In short, this is a clear example of the law of unexpected consequences. Well-intentioned social policy changes based on ideology rather than reality often lead to unpleasant results.
Oregon, for instance, decriminalized the possession of small amounts of hard drugs in 2020. However, this move has resulted in increased drug use and more overdose deaths. Even top Democratic lawmakers who supported the law are now open to revisiting it due to the alarming rise in synthetic opioid deaths.
California and Philadelphia have also faced challenges with their attempts to implement similar policies. Left-leaning lawmakers in California were vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, and Philadelphia’s Democratic-dominated city council had to pass a ban on “safe consumption” sites.
Advocates of drug legalization argue that users are victims, not criminals, and that punishing small-time users only exacerbates the problem. However, Ecuador’s experience over the past decade serves as documented proof that decriminalizing drugs like cocaine and heroin brings more harm than good, especially to vulnerable populations like children.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that American leftists will learn from these real-world examples and change their stance on drug decriminalization.
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