But Japan and Hong Kong and many others still have far lower drug use and crime rates despite their very tough laws on drug use, when compared to Portugal.
There's a few people offering anecdotes to counter that, but obviously actual research wins, the difference between Portugal and Japan are therefore likely to be cultural differences outside of strict drug laws.
It's also worth noting that a culture that discourages drug use would likely be more accepting of strict drug control laws.
Source: I had Japanese roommates in college who turned out to be potheads. They raved about the super-cheap marijuana they could get in the US, which was 1/5 to 1/10th the price as was available in Japan.
There are drugs that are partly or fully banned in other countries that are freely prescribed here (rohypnol, for example).
Mushrooms weren't banned at all until recently.
An ex's brother was prosecuted for weed but let off after paying a fine. Another guy I knew who sold was let off in exchange for his cellphone contacts.
Something interesting to consider is alcohol use in Japan vs. elsewhere: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/167/4/388.1.full
Basically Japan is following a tradeoff where they have chosen organized crime of lots of unorganized or violent crime.
So it will be very hard to compare such a system with a western country which deals with these issues in such a different manner.
I can mention that drug use is fairly low in my home country Norway as well despite pretty lax laws.
We are doing something very wrong with respect to heavier drugs like heroin though since we have a lot of overdose cases. But Switzerland and the Netherlands seems to be quite good at this and they have very liberal laws.
- numbers games: this is just a lottery, only with better payouts
- drugs: already addressed
- prostitution: legal in many countries
- loan sharking: this is just lending to risky borrowers at market rates, when lending at market rates is made illegal
- protection racket: the only real crime here (and, like numbers games, the State hates competition…)
I'd be fine legalising all but the protection racket, because it really is a racket.
Why can't it? Drug use could be socially shunned, counter to cultural norms. Consider Islamic countries where alcohol use is haram. Consider also that alcohol use in both Japan and Russia is culturally accepted. Alcoholism is a significant problem in Japan too.
If you're white and walking around during the night you'll constantly be approached by people trying to sell you weed and coke. (Steep prices, but significantly easier to find than in most western cities)
Edit: Wrote that in a bit of a hurry. When talking about HK you need to take into account the massive income inequality between expats and many of the locals working "normal" jobs. Weed is rather expensive for many of the locals, but for some western bankers making 10k+ USD a month it's a relatively cheap way to take a break from the rather hectic life in HK.
Worth also noting that in Asian countries, attitudes to and awareness about drugs are very extreme. Beyond being far more socially deplorable, most people also harbour ignorant views on the physical harm drugs can and can't cause. There is also less glamorisation of it in media.
See: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/world/despite-a-crackdo...
China and HK have long histories of drug use and opium was widely used there prior to 1949. The Opium Wars were fought in China.