That has nothing to do with drug policy, and is common in many places around the world.
https://www.reddit.com/r/asklatinamerica/comments/ifbvbh/is_...
https://www.reddit.com/r/HostileArchitecture/comments/eh9fz4...
Having read the article I am interested in what the penalty would be. If you can’t do it with a civil penalty then criminal proceedings make sense I guess.
Also, you'll find things like that on every capital of the world, no exceptions. Maybe you'll notice it a little less in Singapore, where drug consumption can lead to the death sentence.
Decriminalization and the rehabilitation focus that followed has been a huge success for Portugal’s drug taking population.
I was excited to see it in action when I was there but what I found and what I mentioned earlier wasn’t all positives.
For example, everywhere outside at night in Lisbon you’re going to have people trying to sell you coke. A guy from the tour group I was in was getting free samples poured into his hand. The level of pushy these sellers are too, I had a guy follow me into a _bank_ offering me his mothers home phone number that I could call if the coke he was trying to sell me was shit quality.
The discussion though is the impacts of this policy on local communities. I’ll defer to my last paragraph on this from my previous post.
Lastly, I’ve never been chased or offered a free sample in any other European capital, even the party ones. Once in South America though.
Less than the time it took me to realize a window in the house opened and someone was clearly going to give me a good yelling at but when she saw we were just tourists in the alley closed the window mumbling something and left us alone.
So yea, what it does to communities is bad but the solution isn’t to look back at old ways hoping things will change if we try again. As you’ve mentioned, a better solution needs to be found, but it’s a difficult problem, and there aren’t many great ideas going around