In 2001, Portugal decriminalized all drugs , including cocaine and heroine. While distribution is still illegal , those caught with personal possession’s are referred to clinics.After these moves , drug addiction dropped to 50% and drug use is lowest amongst europe
Didn’t Switzerland also reduce sentences/fees for drug charges and instead provided users with pure heroin & clinics to wean them out in a healthier way?
Imagine focusing on solutions instead of punishment, what a concept
Wow, that’s a wild but amazing statistic! It sounds counterintuitive at first, but it proves that treatment over punishment can make a huge difference. Makes you wonder if more countries should follow their lead..?
# The Unraveling of a System — Decriminalization Is Still Just a Part of a Larger Issue
Two forces have led to the at least partial unraveling of Portugal’s efforts over the last few years and, predictably, to less favorable results. First, **global drug traffickers continued to use Portugal as an entry point for access to Europe’s illegal drug market dealers**. They battered the entry points of this coastal country, hence a supply of illegal drugs continued. Second, Portugal reduced resourcing of its programs as the country faced multiple difficult economic years.
The financial crisis of 2007–2008 led to program cuts, held to 10% due to continued bipartisan support, initial successes, and demonstrated long-term benefits. Still, significant program (system aspects/levers) compromises occurred, e.g., the extent of research and measurement of results. Ongoing ripple effects followed from cost-cutting through the elimination of government assistance for employing recovering users (often in smaller businesses), which hamstrung efforts to reintegrate users into society (and contributed to the closing of numerous small companies.)
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Funding ebbed still more recently due to new national budget pressures, which undercut efforts encouraging addicts into rehabilitation programs. The results of “disinvestment” and “a freezing in [their] response” led Goulão to state that “what we have today no longer serves as an example to anyone.”
Speaking more quantitatively, drug users in treatment declined from 1,150 to 352 (from 2015 to 2021) as funding dropped in 2012 from $82.7 million to $17.4 million. Budget pressures and the apparent desire to cut immediate program costs of drug addiction (distinct from the total societal cost of drug addiction) led to program decentralization and the use of NGOs. Anecdotal evidence of a fragmenting, even breaking, system abounds: Demoralized police no longer cite addicts to get them into treatment and at least some NGOs view the effort as less about treatment and more about framing lifetime drug use as a right.
The number of Portuguese adults who reported prior use of illicit adult drugs rose from 7.8% in 2001 to 12.8% in 2022 — still below European averages but a significant rise nonetheless. Overdose rates now stand at a 12-year high and have doubled in Lisbon since 2019. Crime, often seen as at least loosely related to illegal drug addiction, rose 14% just from 2021 to 2022. Sewage samples of cocaine and ketamine rank among the highest in Europe (with weekend spikes) and drug encampments have appeared along with a European rarity: private security forces.
[https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-portugals-drug-decriminalization-a-failure-or-success-the-answer-isnt-so-simple/](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-portugals-drug-decriminalization-a-failure-or-success-the-answer-isnt-so-simple/)
Basically what happened after decriminalizing all drugs, addiction started being treat as an illness. It’s still a crime to sell drugs and if you carry more than a specific amount you’ll be charged with drug trafficking. Since the 90’s the scenario changed dramatically, we see less hardcore users, even though they still exist. It’s easier to get treatment and things like new syringes to avoid spreading things like HIV. In terms of public health things improved.
When it comes to crime rate, this is a bit unrelated, but Portugal is the gateway to Europe for many drugs, I, suppose, this happens for geographic reasons and because our justice system is a bit more lenient than others. So since traffic is a crime, I don’t really know how we stand.
They didn’t just decriminalize, they also funded the clinics and recovery process and made some big changes to their legal structure surrounding drugs.
I can see America trying this shit and it backfiring because we only do one part of it and not the entire process.
Hey everyone Portuguese Here, first of all that image has nothing to do with Portugal, secondly during 2000 to 2003 ,i believe ,we had a MAJOR drug crisis and i mean it. So we had our prisons full of drug users and everything the government tried failed,so they decided to decriminalise drug usage(but not selling)and open drug clinics where drug addicts could get treatment and clean drugs(safe syringes and stuff like that ).To this day that is still what we do ,but there is a limit of a few grams that you can have that it’s considered for personal use,if you pass that limit you will be considered a drug dealer and be arrested.
There is too much money and too many jobs tied to drugs in nearly every country. Lawyers, police, judges, border inspection people, people who work in jails and prisons, on and on. If you tried to legalize drugs like Portugal, the people whose jobs depend on it being illegal would make sure that whatever plan you instituted wouldn’t work. They’d also be in front of the media at every turn trying to scare the public.
Any drug user knew it would work
Drug addiction dropped to 50%? 50% of what?
It was pretty amazing, too bad that since then there was no more progress, Portuguese were one of the pioneers to do this after so many years of the stupid WAR ON DRUGS. Such a pity…
What metric are they using to track “addiction” would it be the amount of individuals incarcerated for a narcotics addiction, because if you were to decriminalize it you’re completely discrediting every individual walking about with an unseen addiction.
Also Portugal has about a 5th of the population size as neighboring European countries.
And how does it compare to countries with harsh sentences on drugs such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore?
I’m sorry but this is complete shit.
If anything drug use has increased, the difference is that it doesn’t show in statistics because it doesn’t get registered at all, I had friends who got caught often with smaller doses (or even during the active act of smoking hash etc) and police just threw your shit away and moved on.
[https://www.publico.pt/2016/09/20/sociedade/noticia/jovens-portugueses-sao-dos-mais-consomem-tranquilizantes-e-sedativos-entre-os-europeus-1744626](https://www.publico.pt/2016/09/20/sociedade/noticia/jovens-portugueses-sao-dos-mais-consomem-tranquilizantes-e-sedativos-entre-os-europeus-1744626)
This is from 2016 and the situation has gotten worse,
This is propaganda that is pretty much a smokescreen for the reality of my country, where drugs have been running rampage with barely any effort from the police (they’re known to only do big operations each 6 months and they barely get a small % of the drug traffcking going on); I have a friend who has been selling drugs for almost 10 years now and only had to deal with teh police once, and he aint that smart (I’m talking about quantity in kilos);
Regarding the clinics… well I got caught once with a few grams of has, the police gives you a paper where you sign sometime of term of reponsability to go to a clinic… and if you don’t go they don’t really do shit.
The only thing that this has help is making drugs easier to use and lower the number of overdose, that I can 100% agree on since before this we had a drug epidemic, but this things this post claims are just bullshit and the data is skewed by the lack of reporting from the police.
Drug addiction dropped *to* 50% or *by* 50%.. that wordage kinda matters.
Absolute BS!
I visited Lisboa and it was filled with homeless addicts everywhere on the street (and at all times).
At night it’s a shit show and dangerous as hell.
Amazing
> The drug policy of Portugal, informally called the “drug strategy”, was put in place in 2000, and came into effect in July 2001. Created by the Decree-Law n. 130 -A/2001 and under the jurisdiction of the Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, its purpose was to reduce the number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the country, as it was estimated around half of new cases came from injection drug use. This new approach focused on public health as opposed to public-order priorities by decriminalizing public and private use and possession of all drugs. Under this new policy when the police encounter individuals using or in possession of drugs, the substance is confiscated and the individual is referred to a Dissuasion Commission.
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> The policy consisted of multiple methods to reduce the spread of HIV, among which were harm reduction efforts, information to the public and in particular to populations most at risk about how HIV is spread, establishing treatment facilities and easier access to substitution treatment for drug addicts, establishing so-called dissuasion commissions to persuade drug addicts to go into treatment, and all drug treatment and control units were reorganized into one comprehensive unit. In addition, the existing practice of giving drug addicts a waiver for drug possession was codified in a new law. The law (Drug Law 30/2000) maintained the status of illegality for using or possessing any drug for personal use without authorization. However, for persons addicted to said drug, their case was now deemed an administrative offence. The authority to impose penalties or sanctions in these cases was transferred from the police and justice system to so-called dissuasion commissions if the amount possessed was no more than a ten-day supply of that substance.
* Excerpted from [drug policy of Portugal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/drug_policy_of_Portugal) at the English Wikipedia
Portugal took some notes from Bunny Colvin
Very civilized. I hope I can see something like this in Brazil in my lifetime. Brazilian politics has become more religiously oriented over time which is a disgrace. Religious agenda is a medieval thing with plenty of hypocrisy and “guilty” speech.
Why a pic of Colombia
at the moment, this is the best strategy if the goal is actually to reduce drugs use.
but the governments should cut ties with (and lose money from) trafficking organisations so.. not likely to be adopted somewhere else..
Drug addition dropped to 50%? No wonder Portugese people are so happy all the time 😂
Before people jump on the train here, Portugal has the social programs for something like this to work. Orgeon tried it without the social programs and already recriminalized drugs.
It’s funny. Portland Oregon did the same thing, but ended up being an even WORSE sh!thole🤷♂️
Seems a lot better than harm reduction!
Worked great in Portland
It’s almost as if people don’t like being told what to do. Or not do.
Then it went right back up, Portuagal became a narco haven, and the government and healthcare system of Portugal has since declared it a huge and costly mistake
I’m from Portugal and people here do as much drugs as anywhere else in europe trust me.
Dont believe a word of this. My ex-wife was Portuguese so I spent a lot of time in Portugal and there are more drug addicts hanging around the streets than any country i’ve ever been to.
I also have used weed and dont have a major problem with it but have long seen these stats from Portugal and pressed X to doubt.
They tride this in Portland, and it just made things worse.
That’s just masking addicts as patients.
It’s similar to masking adultery as Freedom of Choice.
Now imagine what they could achieve if they didn’t just decriminalize but legalized all this drugs (legalized as in legally controlled, not commercialized like most states did with alcohol). People who use drugs would be safe from cuttings agents as well as varying active agent concentration, further preventing health issues and generating tax money that could be spent to increase the very good aid / therapy programs they also have in Portugal.
Drugs aren’t the problem. Regulation is. And Prohibition is the worst kind of regulation.
We don’t have a worldwide drug problem. We do have a worldwide drug policy problem.
For those of you who want to learn more, about drug policy, the so called war on drugs and the way Portugal chose, I highly recommend the brilliant book [chasing the scream](https://chasingthescream.com/mobile/) by Johann Hair. It is as mind blowing as it is hard to stomach, but it is worth it.
*Possessions. Why can’t anyone use apostrophes correctly anymore? You’re functionally illiterate.
Absolutely did not work in Oregon lol
harm reduction policies can have this effect in the long term, but they depend on many other factors, not just legalization.
Tja
The Portuguese solution shows that treatment can work ****with enforcement****. That’s the crucial other half: if you are caught possessing or using drugs, treatment is mandatory, not optional. It’s exactly the “court-ordered treatment” that civil liberties advocates hate, only much more coercive.
Meanwhile in Italy you will now be persecuted and driving license revoked, if during a traffic stop you’re caught smoking weed untill 10 days prior the test run during the traffic stop.
Is drug use actually lower or because the authorities have stopped looking/convicting for it?
WILL WORK FOR ~~FOOD~~ A PLANE TICKET
In my country, using drugs is still criminalized, but they dont put you behind bars, but they rather they’ll put you in a rehab, they even help those sober people to get a job or a small business. Even if that is the case drug addiction is still a problem in my country, so it isnt that much because of decriminalization but rather the economics and state of the country, my country is a third world country….
Almost 25 years later and it’s still one of the best ways to deal with the opioid crisis. The fact that other countries haven’t followed suit is very telling IMO.
Whilst this was a massive success for them it ought to be noted that just implementing the stuff they did in your own nation will likely not go well.
pipe dream for the rest of the world
Over here in Greece, there is a program which takes the approach of rehabilitation and providing a safe space for users to do their use, in order to not only tackle the OD problem (by having and carrying narcan), but also ensure that blood transmission of diseases through broken glass pipes and used shared needles is somewhat stopped. A lot of these people have already tried and fallen back onto the drugs and into the streets. For some, this program is the only approachable step they have to start their sobriety from somewhere. They start with zero connections minded towards recovery and they often have only other users to talk to, which is another aspect of addiction these programs try to mitigate.
**snorting powdered sugar**
Drugs are cheap and legal where now ???
I think for this to work in the US, it needs to be implemented by the states to see if it would work on a federal level.