Pointers from Portugal on Addiction and the Drug War
A lot of anglo speaking countries like to quote Portugal as an example, I would just like to add some reality to the picture perfect descriptions I read:<p>- The main public opinion driver for both the needle exchange programs and the decriminalization was a _massive_ Heroin epidemic which lead to an HIV, Hepatitis B&#x2F;C, AND Tubercolosis epidemic, the last one of those is particularly airborne contagious. I often see the lumping of &#x27;heavy&#x27; drugs but (although decriminalized) Cocaine consumption in Portugal was marginal at the time (mostly because the majority of the population couldn&#x27;t afford it). The main precipitator was Heroin consumption.<p>- These programs served as a &#x27;trojan horse&#x27; anchor point to bring these, often homeless&#x2F;missing, people back into the healthcare system. For added controversy for the americans out there, healthcare is universally free in Portugal.<p>- There was a clear rupture point both in crime rates and the prison system capacity due to the heroin epidemic. Police forces could no longer be bothered with the &#x27;noise&#x27; of the numerous small possessions of &#x27;non-heavy&#x27; drugs like haxixe or marijuana. Offloading that to mental health practioners was also logistically useful for law enforcement.<p>- It took a considerable amount of additional healthcare funding for these programs to be implemented. This would _not_ have been possible for an economy like Portugal without supplementary funds from the European Union economic development programs.<p>- I am very suspicious of the counter-argument insinuation that the program initially _caused_ an increase in crime rates and consumption, because the start of the program also matched the start of a fairly large economic downturn. The main idea of the program was that people could go and ask for help, without the fear of being put in jail. If you have a desperate person, willing to do desperate things, not pushing them against a corner is usually a good policy for crime rates.