Portugal Decriminalized All Drugs Eleven Years Ago And The Results Are Staggering

Samuel Blackstone | Jul. 17, 2012, 9:37 AM

AP Photo/ Paulo DuarteOn July 1st, 2001, Portugal decriminalized every imaginable drug, from marijuana, to cocaine, to heroin. Some thought Lisbon would become a drug tourist haven, others predicted usage rates among youths to surge.



Eleven years later, it turns out they were both wrong.

Over a decade has passed since Portugal changed its philosophy from labeling drug users as criminals to labeling them as people affected by a disease. This time lapse has allowed statistics to develop and in time, has made Portugal an example to follow.

First, some clarification.

Portugal's move to decriminalize does not mean people can carry around, use, and sell drugs free from police interference. That would be legalization. Rather, all drugs are "decriminalized," meaning drug possession, distribution, and use is still illegal. While distribution and trafficking is still a criminal offense, possession and use is moved out of criminal courts and into a special court where each offender's unique situation is judged by legal experts, psychologists, and social workers. Treatment and further action is decided in these courts, where addicts and drug use is treated as a public health service rather than referring it to the justice system (like the U.S.), reports Fox News.

The resulting effect: a drastic reduction in addicts, with Portuguese officials and reports highlighting that this number, at 100,000 before the new policy was enacted, has been halved in the following ten years. Portugal's drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states, according to the same report.

One more outcome: a lot less sick people. Drug related diseases including STDs and overdoses have been reduced even more than usage rates, which experts believe is the result of the government offering treatment with no threat of legal ramifications to addicts.

While this policy is by no means news, the statistics and figures, which take years to develop and subsequently depict the effects of the change, seem to be worth noting. In a country like America, which may take the philosophy of criminalization a bit far (more than half of America's federal inmates are in prison on drug convictions), other alternatives must, and to a small degree, are being discussed.

For policymakers or people simply interested in this topic, cases like Portugal are a great place to start.
See also: Here's How America's Love Of Methamphetamine Helped Create The Hellish Mexican Drug War >

Researcher Developing Vaccine to Treat Heroin Addiction and Protect Against HIV

By Join Together Staff | July 26, 2012 | 1 Comment | Filed in Drugs, Funding,Prevention, Research & Treatment

A researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has been awarded a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to develop a vaccine that would treat heroin addiction and protect against HIV.

Dr. Gary R. Matyas has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the NIDA Avant-Garde Award for Medications Development, Phys.Orgreports. He will receive $1,000,000 per year for five years to support his research.

“This highly innovative dual-vaccine model would simultaneously address the intertwined epidemics of heroin abuse and HIV,” said NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. “The implications for public health are enormous.”

“Heroin use is strongly associated with a high risk of HIV infection and represents an increasingly important worldwide health problem,” Dr. Matyas said. “The possibility of creating a combination heroin-HIV vaccine provides an important opportunity to address both a unique treatment for heroin abuse as well as continuing the quest to develop an effective preventive HIV vaccine.”

Businesses in Nearly 100 Cities Raided in Nationwide Synthetic Drug Takedown

By Join Together Staff | July 26, 2012 | 2 Comments | Filed in Community Related, Drugs, Government & Legal


Local and federal law enforcement officials raided businesses in almost 100 cities on Wednesday, in the first nationwide crackdown on synthetic drugs, USA Today reports.

Operation Log Jam targeted businesses selling drugs such as “Spice,” “K2” and “bath salts.” The drugs are widely available in convenience stores, despite a law signed by President Obama earlier this month that bans synthetic drugs.

Raids took place in cities including Columbus, Ohio; Duluth, Minnesota; Tampa and Pittsburgh. Authorities also conducted raids in upstate New York and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

Many states had banned synthetic drugs before the federal law was signed, the article notes. The National Association of Convenience Stores says it advised its more than 148,000 member stores to remove the drugs from their shelves once the ban took effect.

Drug Treatment Utah, California Rehab and Arizona Rehab

Located in peaceful Highland, Utah, Ascend Recovery can help you overcome your drug and alcohol addictions. We provide individualized treatmentplans that are both effective and affordable, to people from all over the country including California, Arizona and Utah. At Ascend Recovery we promise a lifetime of committed care to assist you in the process of drug and alcohol recovery. You can achieve freedom from the disease of addiction and we can help!

Ascend Recovery is a cutting edge residential drug and alcohol treatment center that synthesizes the best medical expertise offered by several different modalities. Ascend Recovery is a dual diagnosis center. specializing in treating the disease of drug and alcohol addiction, as well as any underlying mental health issues. Ascend employs therapeutic techniques that utilize group and individual therapy, experiential therapies, western physical assessment, and medical intervention. In addition, Ascend Recovery uses holistic healing techniques, such as a specialized nutrition program and a core family program that helps families understand the disease of drug addiction.

Ascend Recovery's staff is both caring and extremely experienced. The center's staff has well over 60 years combined experience in the field. Ascend Recovery's is an intimate residential treatment center with 16 beds. Because of our small size, clinicians are able to develop individual treatment plans that benefit each client according to their needs.

Additionally, Ascend Recovery strives to make the gift of recovery affordable by establishing a groundbreaking program that costs 30% less than industry standards.



Because outdoor recreation is readily available to patients at Ascend Recovery, Utah is an ideal setting for a residential treatment center. Ascend Recovery is located 10 minutes from American Fork Canyon, and 30 minutes from both Provo Canyon and Utah Lake. Being located at the base of Utah's beautiful Wasatch Front provides patients with opportunities to hike, swim, water ski, and wake board.

At Ascend Recovery, we believe that exercise and outdoor recreation is an important component of drug and alcohol recovery. As such, Utah is an excellent location for drug and alcohol rehabilitation for anyone—whether from California, Arizona, Utah or anywhere else.

Because it's important to feel comfortable with the program that you choose, we recommend that you tour our facility. To schedule a tour and get more information on our program and facilities, please call us at 800-813-4250

Web-Based Recovery Study Seeks Participants

By Join Together Staff | July 25, 2012 | 1 Comment | Filed in Addiction,Alcohol, Drugs, Recovery & Research


A study funded by the National Institutes of Health is seeking people in recovery from an alcohol or drug problem to participate in a web-based survey. The researchers hope the study will help dispel the stigma that those in recovery face.

The goal of the “What is Recovery” study is to develop a definition of recovery that reflects the wide range of people who say they are in recovery, or recovered, or used to have a problem but do not now, or are in medication-assisted recovery.

The first part of the study included 238 people who completed online surveys, and 54 who completed in-depth telephone interviews. The second phase of the study contains 47 possible definitions of recovery, which were developed based on the study’s first phase. The researchers hope to reach more than 10,000 people with Phase 2 of the study, to obtain as many perspectives on their definitions of recovery as possible.

The researchers hope to answer questions such as whether recovery requires abstinence, whether someone can be “in recovery” if they are still drinking or using, and if recovery is more than just being clean and sober.

People participating in the study, conducted by the Alcohol Research Group, do not have to provide any personal identifying information. The researchers will not be able to identify participants. Answers to the web survey are confidential. To participate, you must be at least 18, and consider yourself as being in recovery from an alcohol or drug problem. Visit the “What is Recovery” website to take the online survey.

Can Exercise Help People Dependent on Both Cocaine and Nicotine?

By Celia Vimont | July 24, 2012 | 1 Comment | Filed in Addiction, Drugs,Research & Tobacco


Addiction experts are looking at exercise as a potential non-drugtreatment for various types of substance abuse. One study at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston is examining whether exercise can treat people who are dependent on both cocaine and nicotine.

“Our lab has studied people who are dependent on cocaine, and over the years, we’ve noticed the vast majority are also dependent on cigarette smoking—about three times the national average,” saysRichard De La Garza, II, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at BCM, and President of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). He presented data about his newest research project on exercise as a treatment for drug dependence at the recent CPDD meeting in Palm Springs, California.

Dr. De La Garza came up with the idea after reading about a study showing that smokers who rode a stationary bike had reduced urges to smoke. He decided to investigate whether exercise could reduce both cocaine and nicotine urges in people dependent on both substances. “There’s no reason that exercise wouldn’t serve as a potential behavioral treatment for any addiction,” he notes.

He also points to studies showing that middle and high school students who participate in school athletic programs have lower rates of drug use than those who don’t exercise. “Maybe the reinforcing effects produced by exercise reduce the urge to abuse substances,” says Dr. De La Garza, who is a life-long runner.

If exercise is found to be useful in treating substance abuse, it would be a welcome addition to current pharmacological treatment approaches, he says. “That’s not to say medications don’t have their place, but there is a large problem with medication compliance. We know that a lot of people who are given prescriptions for any disease state don’t take all their medications, or don’t take them as often as they are supposed to.”

In the new study, patients who are dependent on both cocaine and nicotine are randomly assigned to sit, walk or run three times a week for one month, at the BCM facility. All of the subjects receive cognitive-behavioral therapy. The runners and walkers are given an individualized exercise program, based on their current physical fitness.

The subjects are given urine tests to check recent cocaine use, as well as breath and saliva tests to check for nicotine use, in addition asking them about their drug and smoking activities. The researchers follow up with study participants four and eight weeks after the protocol is completed.

“We will also be able to determine if they are deriving other benefits from exercising, such as weight loss, or feeling better about themselves,” Dr. De La Garza says. “There are a lot of benefits that come from exercise that can make a difference in the long run. If you’ve been sedentary and start exercising, it can be very empowering.”

At the end of the study, participants get to keep the running shoes and clothing they are given as part of the study. “I want to show individuals what I learned growing up, that as long as you have a pair of shoes, you can run anywhere in the world,” he notes.

Dr. De La Garza hopes to enroll a total of 72 patients. So far, about 25 percent of the patients have been enrolled.

When he wrote the grant application, he knew of no other researchers looking at the question of whether exercise can be used to treat substance abuse. Since then, others have started similar studies. At the CPDD meeting, he chaired a symposium on the issue with scientists investigating exercise as a treatment for drug dependence in various populations, including females, as well as individuals who are struggling with both substance abuse and depression.