In Portugal, Drug Use Is Treated As A Medical Issue, Not A Crime
Since 2001, possession or use of any drug has been treated as a health issue in Portugal. The country's drug-induced death rate has plummeted to five times lower than the European Union average.
Gandelina Damião, 78, is permanently hunched, carrying her sorrow. She lost three children to heroin in the 1990s.
A quarter century ago, her cobblestone lane, up a grassy hill from Lisbon's Tagus River, was littered with syringes. She recalls having to search for her teenagers in graffitied stone buildings nearby, where they would shoot up.
"It was a huge blow," Damião says, pointing to framed photos on her wall of Paulo, Miguel and Liliana. "I
