system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does the Portugal drug policy work?

I have been recently reading up on this subject and I don't understand how decriminalizing drug use resulted in its massive reduction. It sounds counter-productive.
gpt
It’s not that the drug usage rates dropped (the Cato paper actually showed that they didn’t), it’s that the rates of the harmful side effects (STD transmission through shared needles, related deaths, etc.) dropped. This is because it’s easier for you to, say, get clean needles if you don’t need to hide the fact that you are buying a bunch of needles, or not having to hide the fact that you are using drugs by shooting up alone.

On top of that it’s much easier to seek treatment for drug-caused problems when you don’t need to worry about the police picking you up the instant you walk out of the clinic.