UK Government Study Finds Tough Drug Laws Do Not Stop Drug Use, Portugal Sees Less Heroin Addiction Following Decriminalization

A new research study conducted by the UK government has found that there is "no obvious" correlation between tough laws and the level of illegal drug use.

The groundbreaking report states that there is no evidence that the level of drug use is impacted by "tough" laws enforced by the government and pointed out that the decriminalization of drugs in Portugal has not increased the country's level of drug use.

Instead, Joao Goulao, Portugal's national coordinator on drugs, said that by decriminalizing the possession and use of drugs, the country managed to descrease drug addiction.

"The problematic drug of use, mainly the problems connected to heroin, we estimate that they have halved from the reality in the late 1990s. We had estimations of around 100,000 people hooked on heroin, which is 1 percent of our population, and now we estimate that we have half of that," he said according to Huffington Post.

Danny Kushlick, founder of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, called the revelations in the report "a historic moment in the development of UK drug policy."

"For the first time in over 40 years the Home Office has admitted that enforcing tough drug laws doesn't necessarily reduce levels of drug use. It has also acknowledged that decriminalising the possession of drugs doesn't increase levels of use," he said. "Even more, the department in charge of drugs prohibition says it will take account of the experiments in the legal regulation of cannabis in Washington, Colorado and Uruguay."

Likewise, Liberal Democrat Home Office minister Norman Baker said the report should end "mindless rhetoric" on drugs policy, reports BBC News.

However, Prime Minister David Cameron said the research did not offer "specific conclusions" and that he did not "believe in" decriminalizing drugs. The Home Office also made it clear that the government has "absolutely no intention of decriminalising drugs".

"Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK," said a Home Office spokesman.