LEARNING FROM OUR NEIGHBOURS

We've all been told we live in a global village, a world brought
closer together through technology and its far-reaching effects.

But, for all that talk, our so-called global village is, in many ways,
a place where each of us struggles in isolation to reinvent the wheel.

Governments often seem reluctant to cite the experiences of other
countries in promoting policies and we citizens often tend to unfairly
dismiss those experiences as irrelevant. What works in one country
won't work in ours, we insist, circumstances are different.

This is, of course, true some of the time - prostitution laws in the
Netherlands, for example, probably wouldn't work in Saudi Arabia -
but, more often than that, our refusal to look to other countries for
inspiration and guidance is counter-productive.

Let's take illegal drugs as an example.

North America, from prosperous and pretentious suburbs of Canada to
bustling and bloody border towns of Mexico, has been entrenched in a
so-called war on drugs for years. The United States, in many ways, has
led the charge - one many of us support.

We believe illegal drugs are dangerous and should be illegal to ensure
our safety and security. Period, the end - leaving no room for
compromise and certainly no room for considering the experiences of
other countries.

Illegal drugs, of course, can be dangerous - some more than
others.

Phencyclidine, commonly known as PCP, and methamphetamine, commonly
known as meth, are notoriously dangerous drugs that clearly pose a
threat to our safety and security. Police forces around the world have
noted crime rates increase as meth use increases and, just this week,
a man in the United States literally ate his four-year-old son's eyes
while under the influence of PCP.

In reality, though, many illegal drugs are no more dangerous than
others we already allow, such as alcohol. In fact, in some cases, the
war on drugs is more of a threat to safety and security than the
illegal drugs themselves.

Take marijuana for example. It's comparable to alcohol in terms of the
threat it poses to our safety and security yet, unlike alcohol, it is
illegal. For this reason, marijuana is one of the drugs Canadians,
Americans, and Mexicans are fighting.

Marijuana is one of the reasons Mexican cartels have grown so powerful
and so determined to protect their smuggling business. The amount of
blood that has been shed by these cartels is heart-wrenching and we've
paid little attention to it because much of that blood has been shed
in Mexico's border towns. Men, women, and children have been
slaughtered by these cartels, often in the most torturous and gruesome
ways.

If marijuana was legal, no matter how tightly regulated or how heavily
taxed, the cartels would become obsolete. Most of the money that fuels
their bloody reign would go into government coffers instead. In
addition, the amount of money we - in Canada, the United States, and
Mexico - spend on enforcing drug laws is astronomical.

If marijuana was legal, we could spend all of that money in other
ways.

Even the prison system would benefit from the legalization of
marijuana, especially in the United States, where prisons are
literally swelling not with dangerous criminals but with people
convicted of drug-related offenses so minor they would be laughed off
in other countries.

If marijuana was legal, prisons could be reserved for the criminals
for which they were intended.

Those are the arguments some of us now believe in, while many of us
still hold tightly to the belief that these drugs must be illegal.

What's interesting about the debate we're engaged in is how little we
turn to other countries for inspiration and guidance. Every country
can teach us something, no matter how quickly we dismiss their
contributions based on the differences we perceive between them and
us.

We have to get over ourselves and stop looking a gift horse in the
mouth.

Portugal is a country that shares much in common with Canada, the
United States, and Mexico. Like Canada, Portugal embraces many
socialist practices and offers its citizens numerous social programs
and other privileges; like the United States, Portugal has a deeply
conservative streak and religious views tend to determine its
citizens' opinions on issues such as abortion and marriage; like
Mexico, Portugal is a country where citizens enjoy a great time and
tourists flock to join in.

And, like all three, Portugal was faced with a drug problem. Instead
of bringing the hammer of justice down, Portugal decided to throw the
hammer away and, in 2001, decriminalized the possession of all drugs.

Seriously, all drugs - everything from marijuana to
heroin.

While the drugs that were illegal before in Portugal remain so - and
trafficking in them is still very much a crime - citizens caught with
these drugs in their possession aren't guilty of anything.

Can you guess what happened?

Portugal has become the destination of choice for drug users. Rates of
drug use have more than doubled every year since 2001 and,
consequently, rates of new HIV infections due to the related use of
needles have skyrocketed. Drug-fuelled violence, both between
traffickers and by users, has turned many Portuguese resorts into
something more akin to war zones.

Just kidding.

Actually, it worked.

Since Portugal threw the hammer away, rates of drug use have declined
significantly, rates of new HIV infections have likewise dropped, and
the number of drug users seeking treatment has more than doubled.

Furthermore, Portugal has been able to invest much of the money it
saved in other areas.

Why shouldn't we consider that country's experience when deciding what
we want our own country to do?

If it works, it works - insisting it doesn't or won't is
counterproductive.

We live in a global village. Lets start acting like it and spend a
little more time sitting at the kitchen table, watching the
neighbours, and sticking our nose in their business.