(Nacho Doce/Reuters)

 

The benefits are indisputable.

 

Since July 1, 2001, all drugs including cocaine and heroine have been decriminalized in Portugal. Eight years later, consumption has decreased significantly. About half of the nearly 400 lives lost every year to overdoses are now saved.

 

Drug users had represented more than half of all new HIV cases in Portugal, or nearly 1,400 individuals infected annually. That toll has fallen to 400 per year, about 25 percent of the total.

 

Ironically, a recent study — O Estado da Nação, sponsored by a newspaper (Diário de Notícias) radio station (TSF) and a TV station (SIC) — showed that a large number of Portuguese actually believe that narcotic-related problems have increased in recent years. 

 

This paradox mirrors the difficulty health experts faced in the 1990’s convincing lawmakers and the public that decriminalizing narcotic possession for personal use would help address the runaway growth in substance abuse.

 

“We heard just about every argument,” remembers João Goulão, director of the Instituto da Droga e Toxicodependência (IDT), a government drug policy agency. “People said that Portugal would become a paradise for drug dealers, a tourist destination for drug addicts. It didn’t happen. In fact, we now have objective data that shows quite the opposite.”

 

This new strategy, he explains, “was based on both humane and pragmatic principles.” Health services, rather than police officers, were actively looking for individuals with abuse problems, providing them with sanitary kits to prevent infectious diseases and encouraging them to enter rehabilitation programs. Specialized psychologists and replacement substances, like methadone, became widely available for those who wanted help.

 

“Once the legislative issues were resolved, we were able to address the problem for what it was: a public health situation. What we tried to establish was a system that gives people multiple opportunities to seek help,” said Goulão.

 

Decriminalization’s results were not immediate. Actually, the number of people entering these programs decreased in the first four years after the new legislation took effect. Many heavy consumers, usually with a dependency on heroin, simply weren’t convinced by the idea of being “rescued.” But there were other, less obvious, signs that something was changing in Portuguese society.

 

Leaving the ghetto

 

Some years ago, a new profession emerged in several of Portugal’s major cities. Known as   arrumadores, or parking valets for lack of a better word, their main activity consisted of  claiming free parking spots as their own and charging people a fee — usually a euro coin or a cigarette — for the privilege of using them. Everything about the arrumadores, from their clothes to their sad and void eyes, revealed them as drug addicts. 

 

People regarded their arrival as annoying, even threatening. Some politicians who had opposed the 2001 law eagerly used them as evidence of the accuracy of their apocalyptic prophecies, an example of how making life easier for delinquents would inevitably boost crime and narcotic consumption.

 

But for most people, the arrumadores eventually became just another part of the city landscape. For some, they are now a familiar face, eventually accepted and trusted.

 

“On my street, there is a fellow who even helps old ladies with their groceries,” says psychologist António Costa.

 

For experts like Costa, head of Lisbon-based Taipas, the oldest rehabilitation center in the country, this new attitude toward drug addicts represented a major improvement. It means that people previously without hope are now actually trying to find a niche for themselves within society.

 

“What we saw were drug addicts getting out of the ghettos they lived in and spreading all over the city,” recalls Costa. “In Lisbon, we suddenly had ‘arrumadores’ everywhere. Naturally, this wasn’t well accepted by everyone,” he admits. But eventually it contributed to a new perception of this group.

 

“People suddenly realized that drug addicts were not much different from alcoholics, so they stopped fearing them. And for young people, drugs no longer had that outlaw appeal. They didn’t want to look like [the arrumadores].”

 

Data on people entering treatment reflects this new perspective. In recent years, the number of individuals in consultation or in rehabilitation programs has increased once again. But there are some interesting changes in the characteristics of those who seek these services. Single men are still typical, but they are now between 28 and 35 years old. In the past, most patients entered treatment in their early twenties.

 

For investigators this means two things: many long-time consumers seem to have finally decided to call it quits, and youngsters no longer believe that using heavy drugs is fashionable.

 

“We still have young people doing drugs,” says Goulão. “But current drug use seems more focused on stimulants, like cocaine and ecstasy, used in a more sporadic, [nighttime] context. Presently, our main concern with this particular age group is related to heavy alcohol consumption — something that, sadly, was always tolerated by the Portuguese society.”

 

Is it time to legalize?

 

Does this mean Portugal has won the war on drug addiction? No one will dare draw that conclusion. Yes, there were obvious improvements. But there are also abundant signs that too many lives are slipping through the cracks of the health network.

 

Recent data, released by the Comissão Nacional para a Infecção VIH/SIDA, reveals that of among 20,000 drug users tested in recent years, nearly 10 percent were HIV positive. Among those that used injected drugs, these numbers rose to 13.4 percent in men and 16.1 percent in women. Some experts believe that this reality can only be confronted by taking new, more daring steps.

 

Luis Mendão is 51 years old. He holds a degree in biochemistry and worked as a consultant in wine production in Italy for several years, until he discovered he was HIV positive. He is now a member of several international think tanks on HIV/AIDS and the director of GAT (Grupo de Acção na Toxicodependência), an activist group that advocates prescribing narcotics to prevent addicts from overdosing and spreading diseases.

 

Mendão admits having “experience with almost everything” in his youth, but swears he has not touched any narcotic, even marijuana, since his late twenties.

 

“Decriminalization was a landmark in terms of our national policies, and it improved many things,” he says. “But after a while, it became obvious that we were not doing enough for the group more exposed to infection.” In Mendao’s view, once a drug addict is considered a “patient,” the state is obligated to ensure that he is given the best care possible. And replacement substances, like methadone, are not enough to reach that goal.

 

Mendão argues that prescribing narcotics to addicts addresses an obvious flaw in the current regime: by decriminalizing drugs, “we tell addicts that it is okay to use drugs, as long as they find them for themselves on the black market. This only serves the interests of drug dealers. As for the addicts, they are inevitably driven into dangerous situations, without the control they would have under medical vigilance,” says Mendão.

 

Similar views have already been shared by some political parties, such as the leftist Bloco de Esquerda.

 

Still, that's not to say that the more radical step, legalization, stands a chance in the Portuguese Parliament. Even experts who fiercely defend decriminalization hesitate when confronted with legalization. They say that the risk of sending society the wrong message, particularly when consumption is decreasing, is just too high.
 

 

http://www.globalpost.com/passport/foreign-desk/090605/legalize-it