New UN Leader May Decriminalize Drugs

Although the UN has been back and forth about drug policy for some time, it looks like the new UN head, António Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal, is taking over, and will be adopting a very lenient stance on drug use.

Guterres is a socialist, and according to Vox, prefers the idea of decriminalization when it comes to all substances. Among his liberal policies in his home country, he decriminalized drugs across the board in 2001. His decriminalization program has had huge success, as there are fewer people in prisons, and more people in treatment getting help for dangerous addictions. There have also been fewer overdoses and cases of AIDS contraction.

According to a report from the Drug Policy Alliance, not only is drug use down in Portugal, but teen drug use is down as well.

Of course, there is no proof yet that Guterres will apply these same principles in his leadership position at the UN to try and legalize all drugs worldwide. That would be a huge and ambitious undertaking, and he will definitely have to play the game of politics once he takes on such an important role. Still, many are seeing it as a positive sign that a man who has been so liberal on drug policy took over as one of the major leaders of the free world.

Some who support cannabis legalization and drug reform are also opposed to the idea of full decriminalization for drugs like heroin and cocaine, so even if Guterres does want to decriminalize, he may not get the backing of all the cannabis supporters out there. Regardless of personal belief regarding harder substances, many recent studies have shown that decriminalization is good for addicts, and a society with fewer drug laws would certainly be good for the cannabis industry.