Talk:Drug liberalization

/Archive 1

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 7 September 2021 and 23 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): SandraaaL. Peer reviewers: Natjman11, Nguyen222.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:52, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Why is this article called Drug "liberalization"
Doesn't this misappropriate the concept of legalizing drugs to a partisan political stance, when it is in fact a completely nonpartisan concept of practice? Shouldn't a term with a root adjective like "liberty" or "liberate" be used instead since they partake the notion of freedom and/or bestowing freedom? Katabatic03 talk 12:58, 15 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Hi there - did you have an alternative title in mind to use instead? JetJaguar05 (talk) 15:06, 21 June 2020 (UTC)
 * How about "Drug Legalization"? I must admit, "liberalization" sounds very bizarre. Artemaeus Creed (talk) 12:08, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Legalisation
I think drugs should be legalised, other than the ones that can kill people, because then people will be able to get hold of them safely, and there would be more of a chance of people quitting and getting help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by IBonnett12 (talk • contribs) 16:25, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

I partly agree and partly disagree because drug legislation can go both ways, the good or terrible. Omosally (talk) 13:40, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a publisher of original thought: "In addition, bear in mind that article talk pages exist solely to discuss how to improve articles; they are not for general discussion about the subject of the article..." Dimadick (talk) 10:38, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

I didn’t expect the change that I made to be taken down so quickly. I know that there are bots which check everything to make sure it is all accurate, but it was a small change that would’ve gone unnoticed by many IBonnett12 (talk) 11:30, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

I think even if drugs stay illegal there should be better rehab facilities for those who need it, rather than just punishment Mvarnold0202 (talk) 11:50, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Tagged the "Ways to achieve" section as having questionable neutrality
The section's purpose, title, and content lean undeniably towards drug liberalization. The section consists of instructions on how to lobby politicians to ensure drug liberalization. The use of the word "achieve" is a particular giveaway of the writer's non-neutral point of view.

That said, I have only applied the tag to the section and not the entire article because the article does seem to contain information of value, and I didn't spot any noteworthy deviation from the neutral point of view in the rest of the article. EditorPerson53 (talk) 02:19, 27 April 2022 (UTC)


 * I agree, . I removed the whole section since in any case it had no sources to support the claims it made, aside from the California point, which I moved to the United States section further up. (See my edit summaries for more details on why I removed the content.) Thanks for noting the issue! Gazelle55 (talk) 22:15, 1 May 2022 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that Drug policy reform be merged into this page. In practice, the two pages both discuss the same thing, which is decriminalization, legalization, and harm reduction as alternatives to Prohibition of drugs. I think the Drug policy reform page is in many ways a better-developed page than this one, but both have strengths.

I've proposed merging Drug policy reform into this page (i.e., keeping the title "Drug liberalization"), but to be honest I don't think either title is great. I think the term drug policy reform could in principle mean any reforms, whether ramping up prohibition or loosening it, as is said in the article's lead sentence, and yet the rest of the article is only about relaxing prohibition. Conversely, drug liberalization may be misleading since it means "liberalization" in the sense of classical liberalism (limiting government involvement), but for many readers the more contemporary meaning of "liberal" (i.e., the opposite of conservative) will come to mind. And although in the Western world, it has typically been liberals advocating loosening drug prohibition and conservatives supporting drug prohibition, there are certainly exceptions. Between the two titles, I lean towards "Drug liberalization", but if someone has a third title to propose I'm interested.

Pinging and, who were involved in a related discussion a while back. Gazelle55 (talk) 20:45, 13 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Agree, The drug policy reform page is pretty much exclusively about liberalizing drug laws. They seem essentially the same. I think “drug liberalization” is a fair article title. Bluealbion (talk) 01:45, 14 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Support. The term "policy reform" in general is unnecessarily ambiguous, and could indeed refer to both increasing or decreasing prohibition. Since the drug policy reform page only refers to the decreasing of prohibition, the drug liberalization page is a better home for all that content. If there is a proposal for a better title than drug liberalization, then a page move could be performed after the proposed merge. — Gmarmstrong (talk) 07:08, 14 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for weighing in – the merger is complete. Yes, if a better title comes up a move can be proposed. Or if there's a source clarifying the meaning of liberalization in this context, a note in the text would probably also be enough to clear up confusion. In the meantime, the page needs a lot of work in terms of following WP:RS... but that will be its whole own endeavor. Best, Gazelle55 (talk) 23:14, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Introduction to Policy Analysis - Summer Session22
— Assignment last updated by Jfcarcamo (talk) 04:33, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

There is no summary of expert consensus on this topic
The article lacks any focus on qualitative and quantitative evidence of the effects of drugs policy; the effects of decriminalisation and legalisation. This may be referenced in the country-focused sub sections, but the article does not provide a clear expert concensus. There is no summary of the effects a move towards legalisation has had on those states and nations which have implemented a liberalised policy. 87.114.5.25 (talk) 11:12, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 8 April 2023

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) – Material  Works   (contribs)  19:00, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Drug liberalization → Drug legalization – Google ngram shows "Drug legalization" as the most common term for the topic FromtheEndofElo (talk) 01:52, 8 April 2023 (UTC) — Relisting.  Arbitrarily0   ( talk ) 18:23, 15 April 2023 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Comment: Consider, as there is often a distinction made between fully legalizing something and reducing the penalties for it. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 04:24, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Oppose - The terms "liberalization", "decriminalization', and "legalization" have distinct meanings, and its probably a mistake that we haven't also split this topic up into similarly distinct articles. As it is, the current title fits the broader topic better because the proposed on is too narrow. -- Netoholic @ 05:41, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Terms are not the same. "Liberalization" would the broader term that encompasses the others.  Numbers are meaningless in this context, as different countries have different priorities, and the numbers would just reflect the most popular priority of the most populous country. Walrasiad (talk) 15:43, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Same reasons. See also Talk:Drug liberalization/Archive 1 (No consensus) (11 years ago). Any responses before this is closed? SilverLocust (talk) 03:04, 22 April 2023 (UTC)