Mastodawn

Dan Gillmor Jul 10, 2023

Washington Post story casting major doubt on Portugal's drug legalization quotes mostly police and -- as is essentially always the case in drugs coverage -- fails to ask, much less attempt to answer, this question:

Is the cost to society -- law enforcement, racism, corruption, and more -- higher as a result of making drugs illegal than the problems listed in this piece of making them legal?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/once-hailed-for-decriminalizing-drugs-portugal-is-now-having-doubts/ar-AA1dxFl3

The War on (Some) Drugs is worse, but Big Journalism won't tell you that.

MSN

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DCrocker Jul 10, 2023

@dangillmor The serious challenge in considering drug laws is that it requires looking at more than direct drug use. Criminalizing drugs produces a broad, dangerous, expensive criminal ecosystem. Presumably, decriminalizing drugs should affect that ecosystem. Has it had an effect in Portugal? The article says nothing about this.

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Dan Gillmor

@dcrocker Journalism isn't interested in looking honestly at this issue, and never has been. One reason is that for a long time broadcasters were paid by the government for promoting the War on (Some) Drugs. But the main reason is that journalists don't do context, and with rare exceptions never have.