Lynn Ruane (Independent)
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There is the issue. Even in the old understanding from Portugal, which is 20 years old, and they would see their decriminalisation model now as completely outdated, when we look at the fact there would be even later sanctions, and even though addiction does not work that way, it is still criminalising addiction but actually decriminalising personal drug use. If you are a recreational drug user, there is not the same likelihood of you not fulfilling the sanction or being stopped and searched again and again because you are not from an overpoliced community, but we still have a system where if you are in addiction, it could take ten years to find any sort of abstinence or recovery and you could be stopped and searched repeatedly and not be able to take up your appointments.