פרסומים אחרונים במדור "חדשות"

It's not just a semantic difference. Usually, decriminalization means that the behavior remains an offense, but law enforcement agencies are required to refrain from enforcing it. Legalization means that it ceases being an offense.

For example, in CA, marijuana possession of less than 1 ounce has been decriminalized. It is still an offense, but the police won't stop you. Possessions of small amounts have been defined as infractions, so you might get something akin to a traffic ticket. A recent proposition to legalize pot completely within the state failed at the polls, mainly because it was badly structured and because there was lack of clarity about the Federal response (not because of lack of support for legalization itself).

Replace the criminalization and punishment of people who use drugs with the offer of health and treatment services to those who need them.

[‎1] http://mnews.co.il/article_focus.asp?article_id=1321...

It is not surprising that the lifetime prevalence of cannabis is increasing, as the generation effect (people above a certain age are highly unlikely to have used cannabis, so as time progreses there are more and more people who have grown up in the cannabis era) will automatically cause this figure to go up. In order to judge what is really happening with the popularity of cannabis in Amsterdam, the figures on recent use and the use per age group are much more revealing. Looking at recent use, it can be seen that cannabis use has increased until 1997, and has stabilized ever since. At the same time continuation rates for cannabis have decreased, suggesting that although more people have experience with cannabis, relatively more of those quit using.

"Dopamine is released... by rewarding experiences such as food, sex, drugs, and neutral stimuli that become associated with them"