[The debate over drug legalization]

The debate over drug legalization appears frequently in the media as a potential solution to issues such as drug trafficking and other problems related to drug use. In Spain, private consumption or even the production of small quantities of certain plants, whose active ingredients are considered illegal drugs, if clearly for own consumption are not practices criminalized by any law. In addition, a drug addict is considered a person who is ill. Although it has not always been like that even in the countries that have called for this debate, where at times the law prosecutes consumers. The population of our country, according to the views expressed in the opinion polls, prefer to increase preventive measures, foster the treatment freely assumed by drug addicts and make stricter the repression on drug trafficking. Therefore, when speaking of "legalization" we should be scrupulous with the semantics; legalize and decriminalize are not the same, it is not the same decriminalize consumption than decriminalize trafficking, neither is the same decriminalize private consumption than public consumption. Decriminalize private consumption is a fact in our country. Beyond this, we advocate for the strict need to analyze from a scientific perspective the hypothetical benefits that would result from drug legalization. Certainly, from the public health perspective, they are hard to find. We believe that the same logic applied to tobacco, increasing the restrictions on its use, is the path to follow with any addictive substance.