Dateline: Oct 30

While a 14 year old boy may face drug charges in Indonesia, Dateline looks at laws in Portugal, where possession of recreational drugs is far more relaxed.

Portugal’s drug policy Ten years on – David O’Shea
In detention for possession of Marijuana – 14 year old ‘Bali Drug Boy’ – is unlucky he wasn’t on holiday in Portugal where they are much more relaxed. 10 years ago they took a bold step completely decriminalising possession of all recreational drugs – from marijuana to heroin and everything in between. The controversial decision in 2001 was a desperate move at the time. At the beginning of the 90s there was a heroin epidemic and it was difficult to find a family that had no one with serious problems with drugs. Opponents at the time warned that the country would become a drug user’s paradise and rates of use would soar. VJ David O’Shea went to Lisbon to assess the success or otherwise of the 10 year old experiment.

Texas Freethough Convention – David Brill
Some 700 atheists, agnostics, humanists and other unclassified non-believers gathered in Houston earlier this month for the annual Texas Freethought Convention. They came to hear the words of the champions of the movement Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, and VJ David Brill was there
to find out about the growing appeal of this godless movement. It was an extremely rare public appearance for Hitchens whose body has been ravaged by cancer. At a point in life when many people look to religion for solace, the concept of belief continues to rile Hitchens, and he has not softened his sharp critique of religion in anyway. While they were preaching to the converted at the convention, both Hitchens and Dawkins have been criticised elsewhere for their blind faith in their own opinions.

Malaysia’s obedient wives club – Adrian Brown
This is a quirky story on a pro-polygamy club in Malaysia that’s rapidly gaining in popularity and notoriety as it teaches Muslim wives how to be good and submissive and to gratify their husbands’ sexual demands to prevent them from straying or seeking out prostitutes. The Obedient Wives Club has more than a thousand members and is growing. The club blames sexually-unavailable wives as the cause of ‘social ills’ such as domestic violence and encourages wives to obey their husbands, present a good personality to the husband, dress well for the husband, allure the husband and fulfil his needs, that way husbands are less likely to stray outside of the bonds of matrimony.

8:30pm Sunday on SBS ONE.
Corrected.