A new dawn for the failed war on drugs

In Lisbon, which was once the heroin capital of Europe, safe-use spaces such as IN Mouraria are a relatively new innovation. Over the country’s 20-year experiment with decriminalization, public health leaders here have learned that providing spaces for people to take drugs with access to health and social care services helps them to get a grip on their dependencies. “People are desperate to find a community to get sober,” Caldas says. Some “visit us after a few years without taking drugs, and you see the difference in them. It’s absolutely incredible.”

In 1999, Portugal saw a record high 369 deaths from drug overdoses. Most were related to heroin. The crisis spurred decriminalization and ramped-up funding for rehabilitation programs that have since helped reduce the annual number of deaths from overdose to about 80. Meanwhile, the rate of HIV infection in Portugal, which once accounted for more than half of cases across the entire European Union, has also plummeted.

Statistics like these and the existence of facilities such as IN Mouraria are signs that a new dawn is appearing above the wreckage left in the wake of a futile half-century war on drugs. In Portugal and elsewhere around the world, policymakers are reckoning with the reality that no matter how many millions of people are imprisoned, and no matter how much money is spent on anti-drug policies, people are going to continue to do drugs. Despite the U.N.’s 1998 declaration that a drug-free world was possible and the U.S. spending more than a trillion dollars over the past 50 years to stymie drug use, rates of use have risen hand-in-hand with significant upticks in addiction and death, even while most people take and enjoy drugs without any serious harm.