TY - JOUR
T1 - A resounding success or a disastrous failure
T2 - Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs
AU - Hughes, Caitlin Elizabeth
AU - Stevens, Alex
PY - 2012/1/1
Y1 - 2012/1/1
N2 - In this Harm Reduction Digest two observers and scholars of the 2001 Portuguese drug policy reform consider divergent accounts of the reform which viewed it as a 'resounding success' or a 'disastrous failure'. Acknowledging from their own experience the inherent difficulties in studying drug law reform, Caitlin Hughes and Alex Stevens take the central competing claims of the protagonists and consider them against the available data. They remind us of the way all sides of the drug policy debates call upon and alternatively use or misuse 'evidence' to feed into discussions of the worth, efficacy and desirability of different illicit drug policies. In doing so they provide pause for thought for those of us who operate as drug policy researchers and drug policy advocates.
AB - In this Harm Reduction Digest two observers and scholars of the 2001 Portuguese drug policy reform consider divergent accounts of the reform which viewed it as a 'resounding success' or a 'disastrous failure'. Acknowledging from their own experience the inherent difficulties in studying drug law reform, Caitlin Hughes and Alex Stevens take the central competing claims of the protagonists and consider them against the available data. They remind us of the way all sides of the drug policy debates call upon and alternatively use or misuse 'evidence' to feed into discussions of the worth, efficacy and desirability of different illicit drug policies. In doing so they provide pause for thought for those of us who operate as drug policy researchers and drug policy advocates.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855335229&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00383.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00383.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84855335229
SN - 0959-5236
VL - 31
SP - 101
EP - 113
JO - Drug and Alcohol Review
JF - Drug and Alcohol Review
IS - 1
ER -