Radical drug policy Works

LISBON, Portugal — these days, Casal Ventoso is a community of blue-collar ordinary — mothers pushing strollers, smoking men outside of coffee, buses chug up and down the main street of cobbled.

Ten years ago, the District of Lisbon was a Hellhole, a "drugs supermarket", where approximately 5,000 users lined up every day to buy heroin and sneak into a honeycomb Hill Housing abandoned spinning. Dark corners, stinking, addicts — some with maggots squirming under track signs — spread between occasional corpse, scavenging used needles.

At that time, Portugal, as addicts of Casal Ventoso, had hit rock bottom: an approximately 100,000 people — an astonishing 1 percent of its population — were addicted to illegal drugs. So, as anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky jump: have decriminalized the use of all drugs in a groundbreaking law in 2000.

Now, the United States, who led a war of $ 1 trillion of 40 years, drugs, is seeking answers in tiny, that Portugal is to reap the benefits of what once seemed a dangerous bet. White House drug Czar Gil us first visited Portugal in September to learn about drug reforms and other countries — including Norway, Denmark, Australia and Peru — have taken interest, too.

"The disasters that were anticipated by critics don't happen," said University of Kent professor Alex Stevens, who studied the program of Portugal. "The answer was simple: provide treatment."

A radical change of policy

Drugs in Portugal is still illegal. But here is what did the Portugal: has changed the law so that users are sent to advice and sometimes treatment instead of jail and criminal courts. Switching from drugs as a criminal matter for a public health one aimed to prevent users from going on the subway.

Other European countries dealing with drugs as a public health problem, too, but the Portugal stands out as the only one who wrote this approach in law. The result: more people tried to drugs, but less finished addicted.

Here's what happened between 2000 and 2008:

? There were small increases in illegal drug use among adults, but decreases for teenagers and problematic, as drug users and prisoners.

? Drug prosecutions relating the Forsaken 66 percent.

About ? Drug HIV cases fell 75 percent. In 2002, 49 percent of those infected with AIDS were drug addicts; by 2008, that number dropped to 28 percent.

? The number of regular users held steady at less than 3% of the population for marijuana and less than 0.3% for heroin and cocaine — figures that show the decriminalisation not brought no increase in drug use.

? The number of persons treated for drug addiction rose 20 percent from 2001 to 2008.

Officials have not yet drawn up the cost of the program, but don't expect any increase in expenditure, since most of the money was diverted by the system of Justice to the public health service.

In Portugal today, caregivers of outreach provide drug users with fresh needles, swabs, small dishes for cooking the mixture injectable, disinfectant and condoms. But anyone caught with even a small amount of drugs is sent automatically to what is known as a deterrent Committee for advice. The committees are legal experts, psychologists and social workers.

Failure to lift can result in fines, penalties or other treatment required. In serious cases, the Panel recommends that the user be sent to a treatment center.

Caregivers Shepherd also some addicts off the streets directly in the treatment. This happened to 33-year-old Tiago, who is struggling to kicking heroin at a rehabilitation centre in Lisbon.

Tiago, who asked that his name be used only to protect your privacy, they have started taking heroin when she was 20. Has shot up to four or five times a day, sleeping for years in an abandoned car where, with his girlfriend addicted, he had a son, he has never seen.

The arioso Lisbon treatment center where she lives now, Tiago play tennis, surf the Internet and watch TV. He helps with occasional cleaning and other work.

After almost six months on methadone, every day to cut her engagement, which he magnificence with hope on his next move a home run by the Catholic Church where the addicts are offered a new start.

"Wonder only God who will be the first and last time — the first time that I go home and the last time that I go through detox," he said.

Programme of Portugal is widely considered to be effective, but some say that it presents shortcomings.

Antonio Lourenco Martins is a former Portuguese court the Court sat down on a 1998 Commission which drafted the new drugs strategy and was one of the two on the Panel of 9 members who voted against the decriminalization. He admits that the Bill has done something good, but laments that his approach is too soft.

Alternatives to prison

Worldwide, a record of 93 countries offered alternatives to incarceration for drug abuse time in 2010, according to the International Association for harm reduction.

If the alternative approaches work seems to depend on how they are made.

In Holland, where police ignores Pacific consumption of illegal drugs, drug use and dealing are rising, according to the European Monitoring Centre for drugs and drug addiction.

However, in Switzerland, where addicts are monitored as they inject heroin addiction is continuously declined.

There is no guarantee that the approach of Portugal would work in the United States, which has a population of 29 times larger 10.6 million of Portugal.

Still, a growing number of American cities are offering nonviolent drug offenders the opportunity to choose the treatment in prison, and the approach seems to work.

The Obama administration strongly opposes the legalization of drugs, saying it would increase access and promote acceptance, according to the drug Czar us first. The United States is spending 74 billion dollars this year on criminal proceedings and Court for drug offences, compared with $ 3.6 billion for treatment.

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