Portugal: Fifteen years of decriminalised drug policy

 

Portugal treats addicts as patients, not as criminals, after 15 years of decriminalised drug policy.

Lisbon, Portugal - Under a flyover of concrete, alongside a road full of afternoon commuters, a group of people flock around a van. One of them, a woman in a colourful summer dress and a golden necklace, looks like she came to see a show at the nearby theatre. However, just like the

man in his unwashed jeans in front of her, she is here for her daily dose of methadone. It will get her through the night.

"Drugs started when my father brought me to the south of Portugal, to the Algarve, where I met people who were in the scene," the woman tells Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

"Life was glamorous in these days. Everything sparkled. My boyfriend was a dealer, and I started to push drugs for him, too. We made loads of money. Now he is out of my life, but the addiction has always stayed with me."

She drinks the methadone from a little paper cup and says she has to leave. She walks to the car parked on the pavement, where an obese man waits for her.

Another woman, a former sales agent named Veronica - who lost two of her front teeth during her years as an addict - comes over to the nurse to look up her dosage information in the system. Veronica began using heroin when she saw her boyfriend do it, wanting to understand what was so good about the drug that he could not stop taking.

The small paper cups are filled with methadone - a drug that takes away the withdrawal symptoms when addicts begin reducing their intake of heroin.