“WHAT FACTORS CONTRIBUTED TO THE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF PORTUGAL’S DECRIMINALIZATION OF DRUG USE?

Engagement

To give insight into this topic’s nuances, I interviewed three different stakeholders. First, the Coordinator for Institutional Affairs at European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, I interviewed him as he has professional experience within the area. Moreover, his 20 years of seniority give him the experience to analyse the success of this strategy in detail and give a reputable opinion. 

I also interviewed the National Coordinator for the Problems of Drugs, Drug Addiction, and the Harmful Use of Alcohol (SICAD), who was also one of the people who helped write the new approach, as he is also a physician, his input was essential to me since he has real experience in handling drug addicts and what it was like before these laws were passed. Not only that, but since he is running SICAD, he knows how the program works that I would potentially not be able to access. 

Finally, I interviewed a mother who raised three boys in Portugal, her oldest was ten at the time of decriminalisation, and I thought it was imperative to get the opinion of someone who had young children and who was living through the addiction crisis. Overall, I wanted to create a blend of stakeholders that would give different opinions and information that I would not find on my own. 

Introduction

Addiction and drugs have always been somewhat of a taboo topic in school, we are taught to avoid drugs and say no, but no one ever taught us about what happens if you do touch drugs. What happens if we do get addicted? What do we do if we know someone who is? All questions remained unanswered for a long time until I realised that I live in a country with unique addiction laws. Portugal was the first country to decriminalise the use and possession of illicit substances. This change in 2001 also came with social intervention to curb the rising drug crisis. This ‘human rights based’ approach proved to work, and to date, Portugal has a lowest rate of HIV in Europe and an impressively low addiction rate. However, drugs and addiction are not issues confined to Portugal, and instead, they run rampant in every country in the world; it is essential to find out how the decimalisation was successful or how it failed. To produce a balanced analysis, I have formulated the research question: “WHAT FACTORS CONTRIBUTED TO THE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF PORTUGAL’S DECRIMINALISATION OF DRUG USE?”

The decriminalisation laws were put in place as the country faced a crisis. Portugal had been in a dictatorship where the country was closed off from the outside world. The dictatorship fell, the colonial wars were also ending; finally, in 1974, the colonies gained independence, and the fascist regime fell. The head of SICAD elaborated by explaining, “Soldiers, who were young men, returned and with them they brought their habits, almost a million people returned to the country”, and the Portuguese people began to get their taste of the outside world and with this newfound freedom came the sudden influx of drugs. Addiction became widespread, and the streets filled with; not only that but all the other issues surrounding drug abuse. A new approach was drawn up with new ideas, ideals such as liberty, human rights, and development. The director of SICAD explained how “We began to deal with this issue as a health and social issue rather than solely a security one”. This is why there is such emphasis on the healthcare side of drug legislation. The laws focus on individual liberty -- the right to use drugs and seek treatment. Furthermore, it considers the Declaration of Human Rights, which states that we have the right to social security (Article 22) and adequate living standards (Article 25). Finally, sustainable development, defined as “a sustained increase in the standards of living and well-being of a level social organisation”, became the motivating factor, and 20 years after, some say it was successful. 

Analysis

Part of the reason Portugal has had success in preventing and treating drug addiction is because of its intervention program. The interviewee from the EMCDDA stated, “Portugal’s approach has become an EU approach, this approach is where we look at addiction and drugs from a balanced, evidence-based, comprehensive approach. We want to focus on basic human rights”. He then explained what was meant by balanced “Balanced means that it has to cover both the health side and the supply/security side”. When the 2001 law was put into place, there was a shift; no longer did the judiciary branch handle addicts, instead its responsibility was confined to the production and distribution of drugs. The shift of responsibility from the judiciary branch to the healthcare branch allowed for a separation between dealer and user as hard penalisation meant an unequivocal criminalisation of drug use, equating the users to criminals. This causes the public to see addicts as stuck between determinism of crime or determinism of pathology.

A scheme that Costa (4) calls the ‘mixed medical-criminal system.’ However, the new system used when caught doing illicit drugs allowed for a new outlook on users and gave them avenues to get help. Addictions are not put on trial and instead face psychosocial intervention. SICAD handles this intervention consisting of the defendant sitting in front of a regional panel of social workers, medical professionals, and drug use experts. This panel then decides what sanctions to impose on the individual based on their evaluation of the defendant’s dependency on drugs. The chief analyst described how “The committee you sit in front of as a drug user is peer to peer, the people around you have the objective of helping you get through any form of dependency issues”, which further establishes that the committee is not there to penalise you and instead as a tool to help someone ill.

This liberal approach gives addicts a chance at redemption, and the numbers have shown a significant improvement in the rate of drug use and HIV in Portugal. The law and prevention programs focus on individual liberty and cognitive liberty. The liberty to choose and get help means that more people did as Portugal has the lowest deaths due to drug use in the EU: 6 deaths per million among people aged 15-64, compared to the EU average of 23.7 per million and as of 2008, ¾ of people with an opioid use disorders swere receiving medically assisted treatment (7). Regarding HIV, in 2019, there were a total of 18 people diagnosed with HIV attributed to injecting compared to the 2005 total, which stood at 500; that number is an outstanding achievement. These numbers show that there have been significant improvements in public health, this relates to the concept of development as there has been a consistent increase in living standards throughout the years. Moreover

the facilities provided by the government are being used by its target audience, again showing that when people are free to choose, they will often decide to help themselves. Also relating to human rights, this decree and this system has provided public access to social security (Article 22) and adequate living standards (Article 25). In summary the psychosocial intervention system along with changes in attitude have allowed the Portuguese to make great progresses in public health.

To make clear, the law, when passed in 2001, was very controversial; many people worried that there would be an increase in addiction, that children would fall into drugs, or that crime would run rampant throughout the city. Nevertheless, the Portuguese culture is a collectivist one, and soon the culture accepted and assimilated this new approach to addiction. No longer were addicts seen as criminals but now as people suffering from illness and thus had less stigma surrounding them. This reduction in social stigma allowed people to feel comfortable enough to seek treatment openly. The mother I interviewed also brought to my attention that this change in law protected the future of people’s health and their professional and academic futures. This was brought to my attention when I interviewed her and she said, “you have to be sensible and realise its (drugs use) is a bit like smoking and drinking and all these other things that come with being a teenager”. She then goes on to explain that part of her concerns was the possible legal ramifications of her children using drugs; she explained how the decriminalisation act “Gave this sense of a safety net where if your children make stupid mistakes they will not destroy their lives because of it” and here comes an interesting idea. That incarceration for drug use would plummet, but it seems to have risen instead. The dissuasion panel has increased drug-related incarcerations in recent years (5). This can is evident in the graph below.

Figure 1 Convicted individuals for drug use by penalties ("20 Years Of Portuguese Drug Policy - Developments, Challenges And The Quest For Human Rights, Ximene Rego et al.)

This increase has been attributed to the reestablishment of drug use as a crime when the substances detected are over ‘legal limit’s—passed by the European supreme court in 2008. This decree stated that if the defendant surpassed this legal limit, there would be a minimum prison sentence of 1 year. While this new decree is not fully binding, it is used as a guideline for judicial decisions, accounting for the rise in incarceration rates in recent years, especially after 2008 (3). This contradiction means that one goal of 2001 was not met, lessening the incarceration rate for drug use and emptying the prison system.

Conclusion

While there has been evidence of both positive and negative effects of the laws to tackle drugs and decriminalisation, overarching positives surround public health and safety. This is evidenced by the massive decrease in drug use, specifically problematic drug use and disease, plaguing Portuguese society in the 1970s. Portugal is a brilliant example of drug legislature benefits instead of Manichean creeds such as those in the United States or Sweden. However, we can see that some failures still need to be addressed. In the future, I hope there can be some reform on the dissuasion process to reflect the government’s initial goals as well as a continuation of what has been going well. 

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