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Comment by brooklynmarket | Hacker News Reader

Can someone explain to me, what would happen if Mexico tomorrow, all drugs were legal like Portugal? Could it get any worse. Portugal seems to doing just fine.

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There is work towards that end in Mexico. A selected few got a Supreme Court ruling that supports the legal use and growth of marijuana for personal use [1]. It didn't make it legal, but it sets precedence and a framework to keep the wheel moving to eventually make it legal like in other countries. Through this very same process last year the whole country make it same-sex marriage legal.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/world/americas/mexico-sup...

Just to clarify, drugs are not legal in Portugal. There is decriminalization on small amounts, but not full legalization. However, Portugal's experiment is a resounding success and I'd expect even greater benefits from legalization (e.g. tax money derived from the industry around recreational drugs).

Well yes but this is a nitpick in my opinion. Drug possession in personal amounts is not a criminal offense. So they are no longer "super illegal" you could say. It's in the same category as a driving offense or something like that. Same in Czech Republic.

It's not a nitpick at all. Without legalization there is no tax money from sales of recreational drugs, and the black market still exists to collect that profit instead. Decriminalization also does not fix problems like contamination of drugs, mislabeling, or inconsistent dosage, whereas legalization would.

Decriminalization is better than nothing but actually misses out on most of the benefits.

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