Who hasn’t heard the pleas of pot-smokers everywhere to “legalize it” so that marijuana can be obtained and used like alcohol, within the scope of the law? Many have argued that decriminalizing drugs, while making them more accessible, will also make them less appealing to many who use simply for the thrill of breaking the law. And Portugal, with their 10-year policy aimed at treating drug users rather than punishing them, has shown that the proof is in the pudding. Only a decade after decriminalization, the number of users is starting to drop, along with a variety of related statistics.
Here’s how it works. If you are detained by police in Portugal with only a small amount of drugs, say, enough for personal use, it is not considered a criminal offense (barring extraordinary or other unlawful circumstances). It doesn’t matter if you’re caught with marijuana, ephedrine, or heroin, you won’t go to jail. However, you’re not exactly going to get off Scott-free, either. You’ll end up in front of a “dissuasion panel” consisting of a legal adviser, a social worker, and a psychologist who will consider your case and decide on an appropriate course of treatment. Don’t want treatment? Well, you shouldn’t have gotten caught with drugs on you. At least you won’t face the jail time that still awaits those busted with enough to distribute.
This program was a reaction by Portugal to a media exposé several years ago that publically called out the country for having the worst drug ghettos in Europe. But rather than spend valuable resources raiding these drug dens only to have users become actual, hardened criminals in the prison system, Portugal decided that a policy of rehabilitation would be a better way to help their citizenry, promote the public welfare, and basically get drugs off the streets for good. It began with the adoption of the National Strategy for the Fight Against Drugs in 1999, and so far their program has shown positive results.
And it has led to more than just a decrease in drugs and drug use (which are both reported at far lower numbers, in some cases half or less of the European average). The occurrence of petty crimes linked to drug use has also dropped off significantly, user-related deaths from overdoses have decreased, and the number of new HIV cases linked to drug use (through the non-hygienical sharing of needles for heroin use, for example) has also gone down (as have new cases of HIV in general, although whether or not this is due to diminishing numbers of drug users is unknown).
In short, Portugal has shown what the decriminalization of drugs may do for society, giving other nations around the world something to seriously consider when it comes to the war on drugs. Of course, it remains to be seen how this program will fare during the ongoing economic recession. The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction speculated in a recent report that budget cuts could have a significant impact on the progress made by this program. Hopefully the overall benefits of Portugal’s system to curb drug use will recommend it for continuation. But that remains to be seen.