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Portugal’s soft war on drugs

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Ten years ago Portugal decriminalized drug use. We’re not just talking marijuana, but all drugs. From cocaine to heroin. Back then, Portugal had a big – and visible – heroin problem. The idea is to treat drug users as sick people, not criminals. Most feel that decriminalization is working, even though drug use isn’t down. The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from Lisbon.

• Gerry’s photos from Lisbon rehab center

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH in Boston.  Ten years ago Portugal decriminalized drug use.  We’re not just talking marijuana, but all drugs including cocaine and heroine.  Back then Portugal had a very visible heroine problem.  So the country came up with the idea of comprehensive drug treatment instead of punishment.  A decade on, most Portuguese think the plan has worked, even though drug use hasn’t actually gone down.  The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from Lisbon.

GERRY HADDEN:  It’s still illegal to use drugs in Portugal; it’s just not a crime.  So you won’t go to jail, but if the cops catch you, you will go before a special drugs commission and then most likely, to rehab.  That’s what happened a few years ago to a young Portuguese couple names Jao and Alesandra.  They described their lives before going into government funded treatment.

JAO AND ALESANDRA:  Not working.  Living in the streets.  And do everything to have money to buy drugs, everything. I already been arrests.  I have already been in prison.  That life, not proud man.  Now it’s another life.

HADDEN: Jao and Alesandra are among hundreds here at the Taipas Hospital in downtown Lisbon picking up their weekly supply of methadone.  This is the flagship treatment center in the national campaign to treat drug abusers as patients rather than delinquents.  The approach here is holistic.  There’s the methadone, but patients also get individual and group therapy, they can take art classes, computer classes, there’s even a gym class.  A therapist named Marie says even games like tag help patients see their bodies in a different light.  She says it opens up new opportunities for them.  Instead of using drugs they think no, I like myself, I like my body, I won’t destroy it by consuming.  Portugal’s drug decriminalization was radical.  Some conservatives predicted it would convert Portugal into a haven for drugs tourism.  Think cannabis cafes in Amsterdam.  But generally speaking, most Portuguese backed decriminalization says Joao Goulao.  He directs Portugal’s Institute for Drugs and Drug Addiction.  Goulao says ten years ago Portugal’s drug problem was so bad that one Lisbon neighborhood was literally an open-air heroine market.  He says the whole country was concerned.

JOAO GOULAO:  There was a lot of discussion as you can imagine.  Because at that time almost in all families you would find someone with problems and the people knew Jose or Maria, they have this problem, but they are not criminals.

HADDEN: In the decade since the shift to drug treatment, Portugal has invested a lot of money and resources.  The question today is has it been worth it?  Has the program been a success?  That’s a complicated question says Brendan Hughes.  He’s with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

BRENDAN HUGHES:  It’s difficult to make a causal link between the decriminalization and any increase or not of drug use.  But for me studying the national legislations, what is most interesting is what has not happened.

HADDEN: Chiefly, Portugal has not become the magnet for drug users as some conservatives feared, Hughes says.

HUGHES:  Many of the drug use indicators have more or less stayed the same in the last ten years.  They have not rocketed up as people would automatically think.  And to me, that’s the most important thing that policy makers should consider when they want to change their policy.  They don’t have to take this as an automatic relation.  Law goes down, use goes up.  It’s not always true.

HADDEN: Drug use in Portugal also hasn’t gone down.  But more and more users are seeking treatment under the government plan.  That costs money.  The government points out though, that it now spends less on feeding and housing prisoners.  In cities like Lisbon and Porto, authorities say petty theft and muggings have declined.  Also, the number of deadly overdoses has dropped; so has the spread of HIV through sharing dirty needles.  On a rainy afternoon under a highway underpass in Lisbon, dozens of addicts line up before a large white van.  This is a government funded mobile methadone clinic.  Arturo Pereiro says if the van didn’t come around, he’d probably be stealing to buy heroine.

ARTURO PEREIRO:  It helps in the same situation of not committing crimes and staying with a better life you know?  And I know some persons that they started a new life and now they are living well and with the family.  And there are persons that are capable of having a good life.

HADDEN: That possibility of healing goes to the heart of Portugal’s policy to deal with drug abuse.  But experts say it’s difficult to know whether this approach is exportable.  Blanket decriminalization, they say, may not be a one-size-fits-all solution.  For The World, I’m Gerry Hadden, Lisbon.

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