Decriminalization In Portugal

In my previous blog post, I discussed my thoughts on the first half of the film Where To Invade Next (2015) by Michael Moore. In the second half, Moore looks at the countries of Germany, Portugal, Norway, Tunisia and Iceland, pondering their progressive ideas and stealing them for American implementation.

The country I was most fascinated with, I think, was Portugal. After years of War On Drugs efforts, the country of Portugal tried an extreme tactic to combat drugs by actually decriminalizing them. What? Yeah. Weed, meth, cocaine, heroine -- you name it. It's legal with under a "ten days supply". How insane is that? A country that fought so hard to lock up drug users tried the polar opposite approach. Wouldn't that just make people use more drugs?

Apparently not really.

The death-by-drug rates in Portugal have actually shot down exponentially since 2001. This may also be attributed to the fact that government handed drug control from the Justice Department over to the Health Department. That bold move in tandem with Portugal's universal healthcare has made it so that even the poorest of Portuguese can get the help they need to overcome drug addiction. It's also worth mentioning that the number of people seeking treatment for their addictions has shot through the roof since 2001.

Now, Portugal owns one of the lowest overdose rates in the European Union and has proven to the world that decriminalization can work.

In the documentary, it was interesting hearing the thoughts of the Portuguese police officers who didn't flinch at the thought of drugs but actually spoke out saying that it's important to help those with addiction rather than lock them away. The Portuguese mentality is more about helping others rather than putting them away and punishing them. Treating addiction as a sickness was actually beneficial to the country and even saved money.


Here in the United States, our government abhors drugs and drug users. It's nice to see marijuana getting some slack in certain parts of the country now but hard drugs are still vilified across the board. As a Vermonter, it pains me to see our beautiful state slowly turning into the heroine capital of the country. I think the smart thing to do here would be to legalize all drugs and take the money that was spent on locking these people up and keeping them in prison and investing it into public treatment centers where anyone can go for free to work on breaking through their addiction. Locking people up costs money and doesn't solve any of the long term issues.