It completely passed me by at the time too, I've only just heard of it this last week or so. Numbers in rehab goes up, drug deaths go down, use of all drugs among young people goes down.
In the UK the argument about the reclassification of cannabis all had the underlying assumption that stronger penalties means less use, and it just doesn't. Use went down after downgrading but even that's not the full story. Use was going down before and continued after.
Cannabis use in the Netherlands went down for six years after decriminalisation and after that only went up in line with use in prohibitionist countries.
In Switzerland, their heroin prescription programme has made the numbers of deaths plummet, numbers on benefits halve, the number in work double, and the number using crime to fund their addiction go from around 80% to less than 10%.
But remember kids, anyone who suggests that this proven policy actually works is a conspiracy by druglords. It must be true, in the european election leaflet Labour said that the LibDems policy of ending incarceration for possession of cannabis was them being 'soft on crime'. Surely they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true.
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