cannabisnews.com: Portugal Takes Away Prison as a Penalty for Drugs





Portugal Takes Away Prison as a Penalty for Drugs
Posted by FoM on August 21, 2001 at 08:05:32 PT
By David Holley, Times Staff Writer
Source: Los Angeles Times
Agostinho Miguel Teixeira, a heroin addict, spoke in amazement about what happened when police caught him shooting up with a friend the other night. "They started to help us," the 28-year-old said. "One of them turned on his flashlight and pointed to our arms so we could do it easier, because it was really dark. The other said: 'Don't worry, we're not here to give you trouble. Do your stuff and then give us the syringes and come with us to the police station.' "But the two addicts weren't being arrested. After four hours of bureaucracy, but no charges that could land them in jail, Teixeira and his friend were released, the beneficiaries of a new Portuguese law decriminalizing the use of drugs--including heroin. 
The pair were ordered to appear not before a court but before the newly created Lisbon Commission for the Deterrence of Drug Addiction, just one component of a law approved by the ruling Socialists that aims to fight drugs with the philosophy that traffickers are criminals who should be punished but that users are victims who should be helped.Teixeira said he expects to enter a treatment center as a result, because he wants to get off drugs and the commission will try to help.Portugal isn't alone. From a pilot program in London that lets marijuana users off with a warning to a law in France that allows police to use discretion on tolerance, Europe has been moving toward a more practical approach to drug use.The Portuguese law, which took effect July 1, eliminates the threat of prison for possession of small amounts of any drug. Critics have charged that it opens Portugal to the threat of drug tourism, meaning addicts or casual users lured here by the promise of using drugs without risking jail.Backers of the measure call that view a mistake, because drugs remain illegal, with their use punishable by fines or community service--just not prison time. And being caught with even one joint could send you to the anti-addiction commission, supporters point out."We're trying a sort of third way between the hard approach you have in the United States and the soft approach some countries have, like Holland," said Vitalino Canas, Portugal's drug policy czar. "We are not allowing any legal use of drugs. It's not the same as in Holland."Teixeira, the addict, said he recently heard British and German tourists talking about the new law. "They think it is a drug paradise," he said. "It's not."The law presumes that possession of up to 10 "daily" doses is for personal use, not punishable by imprisonment, but that holding more than that is evidence of dealing, which still carries the threat of jail. The amounts defined for a "daily dose" are less than what hard-core addicts actually consume, however, so in practice an addict with more than a few days' doses still risks prison.The law requires that anyone caught with even a minimal quantity of drugs appear within 72 hours before one of the country's 18 anti-drug-addiction commissions. After a hearing, those bodies can impose punishment such as a fine of up to $250 or revocation of a driver's license. Commissions also provide medical help and counseling about the dangers of drug use.Canas said that so far, he is aware of only "one or two cases" involving foreigners. "We didn't notice any increase of people coming to Portugal to use drugs," he said.For those within the 10-dose limit, punishment is normally suspended for first offenders, and in any case the law allows fines only for casual users, not addicts, because of concerns that addicts would steal to pay the fines.Foreigners caught with drugs will also be required to appear before the commissions. While it may prove more difficult to enforce sanctions against them, police in their own countries may be notified of whatever action is taken here, Canas said.Drug trafficking remains punishable by up to 25 years' imprisonment. The sale of even a single dose of a drug to a friend is considered dealing, Canas said."We think most people who try Ecstasy or hashish will not try other drugs, but some will, so the system should not leave these people alone," Canas said. "The commission should warn them and threaten them with sanctions."Until the new law took effect, police had shown decreasing interest in arresting casual drug users "because they knew that if they got a young guy . . . using Ecstasy or hashish, and this person with very bad luck was sent to jail, he would probably come out from jail using not hashish but heroin with syringes," Canas said.Police appear to be more likely to take action against casual users.The government hopes such young people would benefit from getting picked up by the police, Canas said."We think the drug users are not the criminals but are the victims of a crime," he said, "and should be helped like other victims of crimes."Estimates of the number of heroin addicts in Portugal range from 30,000 to 100,000. Many users started 15 or 20 years ago and are not only severely addicted but also infected by hepatitis, tuberculosis or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Death rates are high.A separate law that took effect in late June sets out a framework for stepped-up efforts to help addicts with their social and health problems, primarily through shelters and medical programs.That law also makes it legal for local governments or nongovernmental organizations to set up programs for "supervised drug use" by severely addicted people--in other words, so-called shooting galleries, where addicts can give themselves injections using clean utensils and with medical staff nearby. No city or organization, however, has yet stepped forward to initiate such an effort, and it isn't a priority for the national government, Canas said.Skeptics have particularly targeted the decriminalization law."There will be planeloads of students heading for the Algarve [southern coastal region] to smoke marijuana and take a lot worse, knowing we won't put them in jail," Paulo Portas, leader of the conservative Popular Party, bitterly predicted. "We promise sun, beaches and any drug you like."Canas insisted that Portas "knows this is not true," but he added that the conservative leader's widely reported remark reflects an ongoing political battle over drug policy."We must have courage, because we must try new alternatives," he said.Other concerns have been raised about the change.Rui Goncalves, a Lisbon police official with an anti-drug-trafficking unit, noted that in the past, drug buyers were often arrested at the same time as dealers and that their courtroom testimony could help win convictions. The threat of street reprisals was at least partly balanced by the hope for lenient treatment from the court when the buyers also faced criminal charges, he said."Now the risk of reprisal remains, but they have nothing to gain," he said. "In theory, it could make getting convictions more difficult, but in practice, it will probably only affect a few cases, because even now we arrest users and they don't testify."One of the biggest question marks hanging over the new policy is whether anything can really be done to help people such as Luis Tavares, 40, who said he started with other drugs as a teenager, then got hooked on heroin 10 years ago, unaware of its danger and thinking it was "like hashish.""I want to give it up, but it's difficult," he said, speaking the English he learned working in London during his pre-addiction days. "I don't have the motivation. I don't have a place to sleep or eat. I'm sick with hepatitis B and C. . . . I wish I never started."He sometimes tries to get work as a laborer, but "they don't give me a job," he said. "They look at my face and they know I take alcohol or drugs." He's been imprisoned five times for a total of 15 years--three times for car theft and twice for burglary, he said.Tavares gets his heroin by standing guard for drug dealers, he added. "I help them," he said. "I watch if the policemen come or not." But he's often hungry. "The people I watch out for only give me drugs. They never give me money to eat."Many say that the very visible misery of people such as Tavares is one reason why decriminalization isn't likely to lead occasional users of Ecstasy or hashish to risk trying heroin."Young people are perfectly aware of the dangers of heroin. In Lisbon, they see the addicts," said Judite Lopes, head of a project aimed at redeveloping and cleaning up the capital's Casal Ventoso district, which for years was the country's most notorious center for drug dealing and usage. Much of the district has now been razed, with residents moved into new housing blocks and addicts provided with medical services, including syringe exchange programs.Teixeira thinks young people today aren't as naive as he was."I started smoking joints, and one day someone came with heroin and they told us how to do it, and we started 'chasing the dragon,' burning it on foil and inhaling it," he said. "From that to using syringes was one year. The problem for me and most of the guys was when I tried the speedball an injection of cocaine and heroin. That's when I told myself, 'I'm caught.' I liked it so much, I knew right then."The new law will probably provide an excuse for some people to try heroin, Teixeira said. "But the new generation is well informed," he said. "They don't think like us."Complete Title: Portugal Takes Away Prison as a Penalty for Using DrugsSource: Los Angeles Times (CA)Author: David Holley, Times Staff WriterPublished: August 21 2001Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/Related Article:Lisbon Takes Drug Use Off The Charge Sheet http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10363.shtmlPortugal Legalises Drug Usehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6323.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by PoisonedFor4YrsSoFar on August 21, 2001 at 14:57:03 PT
The new Iron Curtain
Its hard to improve over Ethan's comments."Something is wrong" indeed.I feel like I am on the wrong side of the new Iron Curtain.Hopefully the economy will improve and I will be able to move from Stalag America.
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on August 21, 2001 at 11:00:40 PT:
An Improvement
I am certain that we will all look at this article and have opinions about how policies could be even better.Let's forget that for a moment, and merely consider what an improvement this is over Amerikan policy. The police get to help people. Addicts are grateful and attempt to get better. Nobody gets hurt. No one is vilified, marginalized or incarcerated.Something is wrong when Portugese politicians see the obvious advantages to such a system, while Amerikan fat cat ideologues remain mired in ignorance and hate.
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