The Week UK 11.08.2019

Briefing NEWS 13

10 August 2019 THE WEEK

Are drugs legal in Portugal?
No. But nearly 20 years ago, its
government decided to stop treating
Portugal’s drug users as criminals. A
major drug problem had developed in
the 1980s and 1990s: after the end of
the Salazar dictatorship, Portugal opened
up to travel and trade, and the country
was unprepared for the wave of drugs,
particularly heroin, that flooded in.
In July 2001, its laws changed so that
possession of up to ten days’ supply
of any drug, from cannabis to heroin,
becameacivil, rather thanacriminal,
offence. Instead of being arrested and
prosecuted, users are brought up
beforeathree-member “dissuasion
commission”, made up of lawyers,
doctors and social workers, who
interrogate them on their habit. In some
ways, the regime is tougher than the one it replaced.

In what way is it tougher?
Nobody goes to jail for using drugs: by the late 1990s, about
half the people in Portugal’s prisons were there for drug-related
reasons; today, it’s justaquarter. However, the state intervenes
more in the lives of users. Those classified as recreational users
are still punished–given fines or community service. But those
deemed to haveasubstance-use disorder are referred–sometimes
compulsorily–for treatment. Since 2001, Portugal has invested
heavily in services for drug users, which are administered by the
ministry of health, having previously introducedanational needle
exchange programme. Outreach workers hand out state-issued
drug kits. There are methadone substitution programmes for
heroin users, andanetwork of drug-addiction centres.

Has drug use increased or decreased?
The effects have not been miraculous, or entirely easy to assess
–because before 2000 there were few reliable figures. However,
drug use has, by most estimates, significantly declined. In 1999,
an estimated 1% of the population–from bankers to miners –
were hooked on heroin, and Portugal had the highest rate of
HIV infection in the EU. This situation has certainly improved.
In 2017, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug
Addiction (an EU agency) reported: “In Portugal, use of illicit
substances among the adult general population seems to have
been on the decline over the past decade.” Some results are
mixed: admissions to drug treatment centres suggest that problem
cannabis use has slightly increased, but heroin use has dropped by
over two-thirds since 2007. These figures have led campaigners to
claim that the model should be used around the world.

Why are they so confident that it’sagood idea?
Because drug use has been decriminalised, and the sky hasn’t
fallen in. The country isn’taholiday destination for junkies, and
neither is it overrun by violent crime. On the contrary, the overall
results are encouraging. Users who would have been criminalised

have become supervised patients in the

public-health system. Money that was

spent incarceratingdrogadosis now

spent on solving the social problems

associated with drug use–and by that

measure, the policy isarunaway success.

What else has improved?

HIV infections fell from an all-time high

in 2000 of 104.2 new cases per million

to 4.2 cases in 2015.Asimilar

downward trend has been observed for

cases of hepatitisCandBamong clients

of drug treatment centres. The number

of deaths caused by drug overdose has

also significantly decreased: by 2015,

there were only 5.8 per million citizens,

compared with 20.3 in the EU at large,

and 45 in the UK. And all these

improvements took place during the

severe economic recession caused by the financial crisis of 2008.

So decriminalisation is the answer?

Not on its own. “It’s very difficult to identifyacausal link

between decriminalisation by itself and the positive tendencies we

have seen,” said Dr João Goulão, the architect of Portugal’s drug

policy. Decriminalisation is often accompanied by good results,

as in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic; but when it hasn’t

been effectively implemented, as in Mexico, it isn’t. Substantial

investments in harm-reduction and treatment are vital too. “It’s

atotal package,” says Goulão.

Has Portugal given up the war on drugs?

No. Officially, its drugs policy is built on two pillars–reducing

drug demand and drug supply. Freed from the need to arrest

users, the police can concentrate on dealers and traffickers. Even

cannabis remains illegal, unlike in Canada and many US states.

Although Portuguese policy assumes that drugs will never be

eradicated, the question of legalisation is quite another argument:

if powerful substances were freely and legally available in

Portugal, it would introduceawhole new set of variables.

What can the UK learn from the Portuguese?

In some respects, UK policy is not that different to Portugal’s. In

principle, you could getaseven-year sentence for possessing Class

Adrugs like heroin or cocaine, but the police focus on pursuing

dealers, not users (in fact, in the first ten years of the new policy,

Portugal levied more fines for drug use than the UK did, per head

of population). Some English forces are already offeringachoice

between prosecution or drug-education programmes. But the real

lesson from Portugal is that dealing with problematic drug use

requires investment in effective, joined-up treatment. Before 2001,

its heroin epidemic was unusual in that it didn’t just affect the

underclass, oraracial minority. “Every family had their addict,”

said Goulão. And he thinks the biggest triumph was to allow the

“stigma of drug addiction to fall, to let people speak clearly and

to pursue professional help without fear”.

Portugal’s experiment with drugs

Since it decriminalised all drugs in 2001, Portugal has seen dramatic reductions in overdoses and HIV infection

Adrug user takingadose of methadone in Lisbon

YES

1.Portugal’s policy shows that liberalising drug laws does not
make drug use more prevalent; in fact, it can reduce it.
2.Treating drug users as criminals separates them from the rest
of society, making them more vulnerable to violence and disease.
3.Drugs areahighly complex challenge to society: it is folly to
pretend we can arrest and jail our way out of the problem.

NO

1.Drugs are undeniably very harmful to society. We need strong

deterrents to stop people using them, not greater leniency.

2.Decriminalisation will make it easier for the criminals of the

global drugs trade to sell their product.

3.Decriminalisation isared herring. The crucial thing is to invest

in treatment and in reducing the harm done by drug use.

Is it time to follow Portugal and decriminalise drugs?