Drug offences

• Drug laws have changed over time in many countries. In some cases, possession of certain drugs has been made a criminal offence, while in other cases it has been decriminalised
• The Portuguese case - From 1930's to 1975 Portugal had been ruled by a right-wing dictatorships as a 'closed' and strictly regulated society.

  After revolution in 1975 it became a democracy and increased influx of drugs and soon Portugal had the highest rates of heroin addiction in Europe
• From 2001 the possession of drugs was changed from a crime to a civil offence in Portugal
• The thinking behind decriminalisation was the drug use should be regarded as a public health issue aimed at harm reduction, rather than an issue for the criminal justice system
• Since the change in law drug use has fallen sharply
• the rapid growth in the scale of drug addiction in Portugal after 1975 led to calls for drastic action to tackle the problem
• It was also felt that, as a relatively poor country, the new law would reduce the cost resulting from drug use and one source points to a saving of 18%