Saying No to Costly Drug Laws

Aleksander Kwasniewski, former president of Poland from 1995 to 2005
The New York Times (US)
OpEd
Friday, May 11, 2012

In the year 2000, as the president of Poland, I signed one of Europe’s most conservative laws on drug possession. Any amount of illicit substances a person possessed meant they were eligible for up to three years in prison. Our hope was that this would help to liberate Poland, and especially its youths, from drugs that not only have a potential to ruin the lives of the people who abuse them but also have been propelling the spread of HIV among people who inject them. We were mistaken on both of our assumptions.