The ‘DCT’ panels made up of a judge, psychologist and social worker daily see around four people caught with a small amount of drugs – including class A. Spokesman Steve Rolles said: “When it comes to youth drug use, drug deaths, HIV rates, Portugal is looking very good.”Īgitated Sebastian Azevedo is pacing the reception of the small waiting room before being seen by one of Portugal’s “dissuasion boards”. "Evidence from Portugal and over 20 other jurisdictions worldwide shows this is simply not the case.”Īnd Transform Drug Policy Foundation agrees. Spokesman Edward Fox said: “Much of the case against it is based on the flawed argument that decriminalisation promotes drug use. The Government can no longer ignore Portugal’s success with decriminalisation, say drugs law experts Release. Now the shanty town has been bricked up – an eerie memorial to how Portugal used to be. “It was like hell, but it was also a community,” he said. It was a sh** place.”ĭigo lived in Casal Ventoso for more than a year. People would be shooting up in the streets.
He got clean 15 years ago “I was 30 when I had my first experience of heroin. The extent of the problem Portugal faced a generation ago is brought home by former Casal Ventoso drug addict Diogo Pereira, 50.
Now 42, she says: “Nowadays you can come to places like this and make sure you stay safe.” Magda Ferreira says she “wasted too many years on heroin” after being hooked at 16. Its counsellor knows their plight only too well. It’s about harm reduction.”īack in the city centre on a cobbled street where tourists wander, a green door opens into a drop-in centre where addicts are greeted with open arms. The addicts respond to Maria with the kind of respect a patient does to a doctor. In an abandoned, purple Mercedes opposite some flats, four men are crammed inside smoking heroin. Health services worker Maria Carmona, drives the van to another area of the city where they hand out fresh foil, needle exchanges and pipes to smoke crack. I smoke cocaine, but not every day.” Years ago, he would be in jail. Hugo’s team carries out regular tests on the addicts they see regularly at their methadone and needle exchange vans, including chest X-rays to check for TB.īut it is the attitude of the addicts and their willingness to help that suggests the Portuguese are on a winner.Ĭrack-smoking Marco, 40, spots a dirty needle in the gutter. Rates of HIV, hepatitis and TB, sky high in the 90s, have also plunged.
Proof that this is working comes from the EU’s Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction which shows Portugal has just three fatal overdoses per million in 15 to 64-year-olds. Hugo says: “You would never think of her as having a drug problem by the way she is dressed. Then a neatly dressed middle aged woman joins the queue. A 30-something guy turns up on a mountain bike as another regular turns up in a smart blue office suit.Ī painter and decorator checks in. Married couples turn up in new Audis and Land Rovers, while a Mercedes bus ferries others to this mobile help centre. Looking at the diverse backgrounds of those queuing for an opiate-filled plastic cup from Hugo Faria’s team of psychologists, it’s obvious addiction here affects all walks of life.
#Medicine byword for crack how to#
Last week there was a delegation from Norway and in the past Croatia and Ireland have sent officials.Īnti-drug campaigners like Sir Richard Branson have also been welcomed to witness this phenomenon – how to tackle the growing global drugs problem in a way no one ever believed could work. In the UK, that figure is 44.6 per million – 14 times higher.Ī team from the Home Office has been among politicians and health professionals from around the world flocking here. Instead, the number of addicts in Portugal has HALVED with most on treatment programmes.įatal overdoses have dropped to three per million. Critics warned Portugal would become Europe’s drugs capital.īut it didn’t happen. Since July 2001, anyone can possess a gram of heroin, two of cocaine, 25 of marijuana leaves, five of hashish and one of ecstasy without punishment. It began looking at its drugs crisis as a medical rather than a criminal issue. The Government stopped prosecuting caught Class A users if they could prove their stuff was for personal use.
0 kommentar(er)
