Back in the 1990s, Portugal faced a heroin crisis.
One in a hundred people were using the drug.
It took something drastic to turn things around.
Here’s how Portugal kicked the habit
While the Western World experienced the social and cultural revolution of the sixties
Portugal was kept isolated by the dictator Antonio Salazar.
In 1974, the Carnation Revolution overthrew his oppressive Estado Novo regime and the
Portuguese people were suddenly exposed to newfound freedoms.
“Censorship was at an end, freedom of speech restored, elections promised and most important
of all, the end of portugal’s colonial wars in Africa”
This was the catalyst that would lead to Portugal’s problem.
Attitudes towards drugs and experimentation were relaxed.
At the same time, the population grew, with up to a million people arriving from the colonies,
just as the country fell into a severe economic depression.
As if on cue, cheap heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan flooded Europe.
While most countries had experience fighting drugs,
the new, liberal Portugal wasn’t prepared.
By the nineties an estimated one percent of the population was using heroin.
"It was almost impossible to find a single family in Portugal that had no problems connected
to drugs."
Doctor João Goulão formed part of a team of healthcare professionals to re-think how
Portugal dealt with drugs.
Feeling like they had nothing to lose, their solution was radical.
On July 1st 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world
to decriminalize all drugs.
What that means is while they remain illegal, possessing small amounts of anything from
cannabis to cocaine, or even heroin doesn’t result in arrest.
Users aren’t considered as criminals but rather treated as patients in a health-first
approach.
Instead of facing a judge, they meet a “dissuasion panel” made up of lawyers, social workers
and medics.
Before decriminalization around 90% of funds spent on fighting drugs went on enforcement
and just 10% on healthcare.
After 2001, that was reversed.
Critics claimed the change in law might encourage users and even attract drug tourists.
And there is some evidence that suggests small increases in reported drug use.
But advocates of decriminalization say that drug users are more likely to find help if
they know they won’t be locked up.
The number of Portuguese in rehab programmes rose from just over 6,000 in 1999 to
nearly 26,000 in 2008.
While those using heroin has fallen, from about 100,000 to around 50,000 today.
And drug-related deaths have fallen dramatically.
In 2015 Portugal had just six deaths per million people, the lowest in Western Europe and a
tiny fraction of that in the U.S..
The numbers show just how remarkable Portugal’s turnaround has been.
Due to its geography it serves as a gateway for trafficking into Europe, so stamping out
drugs just isn’t realistic.
Instead, it’s shown that a humane and health-led approach can be much less damaging to society.