Portugal’s Radicalization On Drugs.
When the drugs came, they hit all at once. It was the 80s, and by the time one in 10 people had slipped into the depths of heroin use. Bankers, university students, carpenters, socialites, miners name them. Portugal was in a state of panic. In truth, there was a lot of ignorance back then. Forty years of authoritarian rule under the regime established by António Salazar in 1933. It had suppressed education, weakened institutions and lowered the school-leaving age, in a strategy intended to keep the population docile.
The country was closed to the outside world. People missed out on the experimentation and mind-expanding culture of the 1960s. When the regime ended abruptly in a military coup in 1974, Portugal was suddenly opened to new markets and influences. Under the old regime, Coca-Cola was banned and owning a cigarette lighter required a license. When marijuana and then heroin began flooding in, the country was utterly unprepared.
Reforms Portugal Made
In 2001, Portugal became the first country to decriminalise the possession and consumption of all illicit substances. Rather than being arrested, those caught with a personal supply might be given a warning, a small fine, or told to appear before a local commission. A doctor, a lawyer and a social worker about treatment, harm reduction, and the support services that were available to them.
Portugal complemented its policy of decriminalisation by allocating greater resources across the drugs field. Expanding and improving prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social reintegration programmes. The introduction of these measures coincided with an expansion of the Portuguese welfare state, which included a guaranteed minimum income. While decriminalisation played an important role, it is likely that the positive outcomes would not have been achieved without these wider health and social reforms.
I think if we all followed the example set by Portugal, we would all be in a better position to curb drug use. What began as the “Portuguese experiment” is now celebrated around the world as the “Portuguese model.”
