Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2002 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact:  http://www.csmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/83
Author: Sara B. Miller
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

PORTUGAL ASSESSES ITS SOFTER APPROACH TO DRUG USERS

A Year Ago Lisbon Decriminalized Drug Use. Views Differ On Whether The 
Policy Is Effective.

PORTO, PORTUGAL - In the shadowy labyrinth of cobblestone streets around 
this port city's 12-century Se cathedral, heroin addicts have long been 
selling drugs and shooting up. Police had hoped that the narcotics-infested 
neighborhood would change after Portugal's decision to decriminalize the 
use of all drugs. But a year after the sweeping initiative took effect, 
they say the scene, and their jobs, have changed little.

"There are no fewer people here today than a year ago," says one of three 
officers on the night shift, who asked that his name not be used since, 
officially, the police are in favor of decriminalization.

"The program has a good intention, but it isn't working. They go to 
rehabilitation and come right back. Or they are at rehabilitation by day 
and shooting up here at night."

Portugal, a main gateway for drugs entering Europe, has among the highest 
per capita rates of hard drug use in the European Union, with an estimated 
80,000 heroin addicts in a population of 10 million. Decriminalizing drug 
consumption was intended to attack the problem at its source: With users 
given treatment and education instead of jail time, police could devote 
more time and resources to catching traffickers.

While an evaluation to be released later this month by the nation's 
Institute for Drugs and Drug Addiction points to some positive results over 
the past year, the frustrations, and the cost of the program, have some 
critics urging cutbacks.

The program is being watched by other countries in Western Europe, which 
has rejected the hard-line US approach and moved increasingly to lenient 
policies toward users.

Just last month, Britain, traditionally an anti-drug bastion, became the 
latest to follow the trend, announcing that private use of marijuana in 
small amounts will not result in jail time.

So far, Portugal has gone the furthest, decriminalizing the use - but not 
sale - of all drugs, from cannabis to cocaine. When users are caught, they 
are sent to one of the country's 18 newly created commissions staffed with 
social workers, legal advisers, and psychiatrists. The commission decides 
whether the user will be sent to a treatment program. Sanctions, such as 
revocation of passport or a fine for repeated offenses - typically about 
$150 - can also be imposed.

The commissions also try to inspire users to look inward for motivation to 
quit, asking them such questions as: Why do you use drugs? How do you think 
you could stop the need?

The commission in Porto, which has seen 1,032 users in its first year, 
according to its president, Eduarda Costa, is in the city's business 
district. It has the sleek feel of a public relations office, with hardwood 
floors, top-40 music in the background, and a casually dressed young staff. 
The hope is that these commissions will serve as a kinder, gentler path to 
prevention and treatment than the court system did.

According to the national drug institute evaluation, of the 6,000 users who 
were sent to the commissions in the past year, some 1,600 have undergone 
treatment at the Prevention and Treatment of Drug Addiction Service, the 
public rehabilitation center.

"One of the most important things Portugal has learned this year is the 
importance of dissuasion," says Elza Pais, the president of the 
government-run drug institute. "With the commissions, drug users are 
getting to treatment much faster."

When the initiative was passed last year, it drew criticism from 
conservative politicians and some members of the Roman Catholic church. 
Paulo Portas, former leader of the Popular Party and now the nation's 
defense minister, strongly condemned the law, concerned that it would turn 
the country into a haven for drug trafficking and drug tourism. Under the 
new program, trafficking is still a crime.

"There has been no indication that more traffickers have come to the 
country or that drug use or drug tourism is increasing," says Vitalino 
Canas, a member of parliament who directed the program last year as the 
secretary of state under the Socialist government. He says that it is still 
too early to assess the full impact of the program.

It is unclear whether the program will result in more trafficking arrests. 
Since the start of the program in July 2001, 1,892 people have been caught 
for trafficking, about the same number as were caught last year.

Still, at least with regard to drug users, the public has a new perception 
that something is being done, says Pais. "The sense of impunity has 
disappeared, since consumers, when caught by the police, are considered 
very rapidly by [the commissions]," she says. "Before, processes could take 
as long as two years to be taken to court. Nowadays, within four to five 
weeks a decision is taken."

When the new conservative government took office last spring, it threatened 
to abandon the program, says Danilo Ballotta, an expert at the European 
Union Monitoring Center for Drug and Drug Addiction in Lisbon. Instead, the 
program was moved under the health department to fit in line with the 
philosophy that drug users are patients, not criminals, and no major 
structural changes were made.

"It is very rare that a new government, of different colors, would take the 
same program and not change it. I think that shows it is working well and 
that the people are in favor of it," Ballotta says. "[The government] 
realized that it is the trend in Europe - new legislation that softens 
policies toward drug users, just like in Spain and Italy."

The government is considering cutting back the program, however.

Officials are studying the possibility of closing down some of the 18 
commissions because, although Pais says that coordination between the 
police and the commissions is growing. not enough users are being sent to 
the commissions to keep them busy.

And other reductions may be on the way. "Treatment is controlled by 
outsources, and the problem is the cost," Ballotta says. "Whenever public 
money is cut, one of the first places it is cut from is health."

The decriminalization project is part of a comprehensive anti-drug campaign 
set to run until 2004, when a fuller assessment will be made. The campaign 
includes education and prevention programs in jails and in classrooms, from 
elementary school to college; media initiatives; and information programs 
in parent associations.

One of the major components is risk-reduction, including needle exchange 
programs, methadone centers, and street teams of health care workers who 
drive around drug-infested neighborhoods and distribute information along 
with clean needles.

According to the national drug institute's web site, public spending is to 
increase 10 percent per year until 2004, up to $1.53 billion.

The program is having an important impact on public opinion, according to 
the national drug institute's evaluation.

"We are experiencing a revolution of mentalities," says Pais, "which 
facilitates the social integration process so that drug users aren't 
marginalized."
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