In this series I analyze the results of two different drug restriction policies; the prohibition policy of the U.S., referred to as the “War on Drugs”, and the Portuguese decriminalization policy.

I do this in the aim of testing the hypotheses that a system that does not punish addicts, but reconnects them with society is superior to the more widely used prohibition system.

If you have not yet read part 1: "The War on Drugs" I suggest that you read it before continuing with part 2. In part 3: Why do people become addicted I examine the underlying reasons for addiction, and present the conclusions for this series.

This series serves as a critical analysis of a collection of academic articles, studies and web pages on the matter of addiction and restriction policies.

Part 2: Portugal's decriminalization policy

Portugal had been strictly Catholic and conservative during Antonio Salazar’s time as Prime Minister (1932-1968), which led the country to be badly prepared for the more accepting 1970s. The rapidly changing system and the low level of knowledge about hard and soft drugs, resulted in Portugal having Europe’s second highest rate of lifetime prevalence for heroin use by 2001 (Domolawski 2011:19). Any punitive attempts to control the drug usage had only made the problem worse.

In 2001, Portugal made the decision to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of any illicit drug. The most important aspect of the new drug policy, however, was not the decriminalization, but the major expansion of prevention, treatment and harm reduction services:

If a person was to be found with a personal-use amount of any drug, he would no longer be arrested but instead examined by health or social service personnel to determine the extent to his addiction and his need for treatment.

Results of the new policy

Since the change of policy a small increase in use of drugs can be seen when looking at life time prevalence of any drug use among adults (15-64) in Portugal, but this can still be explained by the change in culture that followed the 1970s. However, when examining past month prevalence and the rate of continuation of drug abuse, a decrease can be observed.

The number of people receiving drug treatment has increased by more than 60% between 1998 and 2011, which is impressive when considering that drug treatment is completely voluntary.

The number of new annual cases of HIV has declined from 1,575 to 78 between 2000 and 2013. Drug induced deaths have decreased from 80 in 2001 to 16 in 2012. Since embracing the new drug policy, the per capita social cost of drug misuse has decreased by 18%.

Most importantly the people of Portugal have been so satisfied with the new system that hardly no one wants to go back to the old one.

“The biggest effect has been to allow the stigma of drug addiction to fall, to let people speak clearly and to pursue professional help without fear.”
(Dr. João Goulão, 2011, cited by DPA 2015).

Levels of drug consumption in Portugal are currently among the lowest in the European Union. Data above can be found in the article Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: A Health-Centered Approach (Drug Policy Alliance 2015).

When punishing and cutting out people who are suffering from addiction, one only adds to their reason to try to escape the reality they are living in. However, when society is more understanding of people suffering from addiction, and the addicts no longer have to fear the consequences of letting others know about their drug abuse, more people will dear to seek treatment and overcome their addiction.

Thank you for reading this far!

The last part of the series will be published shortly:

part 3: Why do people become addicted?

Here is a link to part 1: the "War on Drugs" if you have not yet read it. The last part of the series is part 3: Why do people become addicted?

Please do share your thoughts in the comments, and feel free to upvote and resteem if you enjoyed the post!

I would also appreciate any comments concerning flaws in the language
since English is not my mother tongue.

mialinnea