Caitlin Elizabeth Hughes BA (Hons), BSc, PhD, Research Fellow, Alex Stevens BA (Hons), MA, PhD, Professor in Criminal Justice.
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A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs
Article first published online: 2 JAN 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00383.x
© 2012 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs
Additional Information
How to Cite
HUGHES, C. E. and STEVENS, A. (2012), A resounding success or a disastrous failure: Re-examining the interpretation of evidence on the Portuguese decriminalisation of illicit drugs. Drug and Alcohol Review, 31: 101–113. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00383.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 2 JAN 2012
- Article first published online: 2 JAN 2012
- Received 15 March 2011; accepted for publication 18 September 2011.
Corrected by:
ERRATUM: Erratum
Vol. 31, Issue 5, 727, Article first published online: 5 JUL 2012
- Abstract
- Article
- References
- Cited By
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.
Simon Lenton
Co-editor, Harm Reduction Digest