Winning the War on Drugs: Drug Decriminalization in Portugal

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use, marking a dramatic shift in its approach to addiction. Once described as the heroin capital of Europe, the country had faced a severe drug crisis throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with widespread heroin use, open-air drug markets, and rising overdose deaths.

This episode of SBS Dateline travels to Lisbon to examine Portugal's model of drug decriminalization and its impact two decades after the reforms were introduced. Rather than treating personal drug use primarily as a criminal matter, Portugal shifted its focus toward health, treatment, harm reduction, and social support.

Through interviews with policymakers, health professionals, social workers, and people who use drugs, the investigation explores how decriminalization works in practice, the challenges that remain, and what countries such as Australia might learn from one of the world's most widely discussed drug policy reforms.

Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Model

Portugal's approach to drug decriminalization is often described as a public health success, but decriminalization was only one part of a broader system that included treatment, harm reduction, healthcare, and social support. While the country saw major improvements in several drug-related health outcomes, more recent challenges and reduced investment in support services have complicated the picture. Researchers and policy experts emphasize that Portugal's experience cannot be evaluated separately from the health and social services designed to support it.

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"Today is Freedom Day in Portugal, a national holiday that celebrates the country's shift from authoritarian rule to democracy in 1974."

"Under Portugal's decriminalized drug policy, it's not considered a crime to have up to 10 days worth of drugs for personal use. For marijuana, that's 25 grams. For cocaine, it's 2 grams. For heroin, it's 1 gram."

"What we mean by decriminalizing is not the same thing as regulating or legalizing. Decriminalizing means that we no longer treat it as a criminal offense, but it's still an illegal activity, so we deal with it as a misdemeanor offense."

"When democracy arrived in 1974, so did access to the outside world. Along with new prosperity came an influx of drugs. By the 90s, 1-in-10 people were using heroin and Casal Ventoso was home to the biggest open-air drug market in Europe. On average, one person in Portugal was dying from a drug overdose every single day."

"Since Portugal decriminalized drug use, the number of people using heroin has reduced by 75%. It now has the lowest drug-related death rate in Western Europe and drug use among young people is below the European average. But while drug use is down, smuggling and dealing is still a problem in Portugal."

"In Australia, illicit drug use is growing and changing. The Coronavirus pandemic has made it harder for users to access cocaine and heroin, while use of new emerging drugs, thought to be more potent and more deadly, has surged. Each state and territory designs its own drug laws and last year the ACT became the first jurisdiction to legalize the use and possession of small amounts of cannabis. Then, in February, a bill was introduced that would follow in Portugal's footsteps and decriminalize the possession of other illicit drugs."