Having a healthy skepticism for things we run across in pop culture means maintaining it

even when we see something that we are predisposed to support and believe.

One divisive issue is drug policy.

Just about everyone has strong feelings one way or the other on that.

Can we put our feelings aside and instead go with what the data says?

Today we're going to find out by pointing our skeptical eye at Portugal's famous decriminalization

of illicit drugs.

That's up next on Skeptoid.

Decoder Ring is Slates Podcast about cracking cultural mysteries.

In each episode host Willa Pascon takes a cultural question, object or habit, examines

its history and tries to figure out what it means and why it matters.

The latest season is full of juicy topics like, remember the viral phenomenon in Optical

Mindblower known as the Dress.

What can we learn from the rise and fall of one of the most well-known personal injury

law firms in America?

Listen to these episodes and more on Decoder Ring, wherever you get your podcasts.

For listening to Skeptoid, I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.

Twenty years of data from Portugal, drug decriminalization.

It has indeed been more than 20 years since Portugal famously decriminalized all illicit drugs.

Their reason had been a noble one, HIV infections from shared needles were rampant and the country's

existing policy which focused on criminalization and punishment had failed to make any dent

in that.

...