What can we learn from the Portuguese decriminalization of illicit drugs?

Dr Caitlin HughesDrug Policy Modelling Program

NDARC, The University of New South Wales

Co-author: Professor Alex Stevens University of Kent

ACT Legislative AssemblyThursday, 17 Nov 2011

DPMP is funded by the Colonial Foundation Trust

Decriminalisation vs legalisation?

• Decriminalisation: removal of sanctions under criminal law, with optional use of alternate sanctions

• Legalisation: complete removal of sanctions, making behaviour legal and applying no criminal or administrative penalty

Portugal pre reform

• Low prevalence of lifetime drug use e.g. In 2001 7.8% of pop aged 15-64 reported ever having used an illicit

drug

• Increasing rates of problematic drug use, HIV, Hepatitis C

• Growing concern over the social exclusion and marginalization of drug users

• Perception that criminalization of drug use was worsening the problem

The Portuguese reform

• Aim: – 1. To remove drug users from the criminal justice

system – 2. To discourage and/or treat drug use

• Law 30/2000: use, possession and acquisition of all illicit drugs, when in small quantities, deemed a public order offence

• Detected users sanctioned through Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction (CDTs) which employ a panel of experts

• CDTs seek to:– Discuss pattern of drug use and motivations and

circumstances of use– Refer dependent people to treatment– Provide alternate sanctions for non-dependent

• Introduced as part of a new national drug strategy that expanded treatment, harm reduction etc services

Key features of the Portuguese decriminalisation

• Applies to all illicit drugs (most other examples of decriminalisation apply to cannabis only)

• Legislative reform (not just practice based)

• Seeks to provide a therapeutic and social response (not just the removal of criminal sanctions)

• Employs drug law reform as a tool to ‘enable’ other drug policy levers: treatment, harm reduction, social inclusion, law enforcement etc

Proviso

• The lack of a ‘non-reform Portugal’ and the multiplicity of changes make it impossible to attribute any changes in drug use or related harm directly to the fact or form of the Portuguese decriminalization

• Yet, we can test the hypotheses aired at the time, that the reform would:

1. Incite interest in drug use2. Increase drug related harms3. Reduce the ability of the criminal justice system to function

effectively

CDTs – numbers processed

CDT– rulings made

Did reform incite drug use?

Trends in any illicit drug use - general population (aged 15-64)

Trends in recent use – by age group

Trends in recent use – by drug type

Trends in school students - recent cannabis use (ESPAD data)

Did reform increase drug-related harms?

Trends in problematic drug users(per 1000 pop aged 15–64 years) – Portugal vs. Italy

Impacts on drug-induced deaths

Drug-related deaths: Deaths that involve a positive post-mortem toxicological test for the presence of any illicit substance (regardless of whether or not the drug caused the death) . Drug-induced deaths: Deaths that physicians determined according to International Classification of Disease protocols to be directly attributable to drug use .

Impacts on drug-related HIV and treatment provision

2000 2008

No. users with HIV 907 267

No. users with AIDS 506 108

1998 2008

No. in drug treatment

23,654 38,532

Did reform reduce the capacity of the criminal

justice system to function effectively?

Portugal – Trends in CJS burden-1

Portugal – Trends in CJS burden-2

Trends in Spain

Impact on prisons and law enforcement ability

Impacts on prisons• Between 1999 and 2008 proportion of drug-related offenders in

prison decreased from 44% to 21%• Between 2001 and 2007 use of heroin within prison decreased from

27% to 13%• Both findings have been very welcome, due to the historic

overcrowding of Portuguese prisons.

Impacts on law enforcement ability• Law enforcement officials suggest they have been able to:

• refocus their attention on the upper end of the drug market;• enhance their international collaborative efforts; and • introduce more systematic investigative techniques.

• Supported by increased quantity of seizures post reform

Implications

• Ten years post reform there is evidence of: – Only small increases in recent drug use– Reductions in the prevalence of problematic drug use– Increased uptake of treatment– Reduction in drug-induced deaths and HIV– Reduced burden on criminal justice system, particularly prison

• Important to emphasise this is not only a consequence of the law reform

• But this indicates that even when conducted for all illicit drugs: – Decriminalising use, possession and acquisition will not inevitably

lead to a rampant increase in illicit drug use– Nor does it appear to lead automatically to an increase in drug-

related harms – It may even assist governments to reduce net harm to the general

community

Thank You

Contact details: Dr Caitlin Hughes

P: +61 2 9385 0132 E: caitlin.hughes@unsw.edu.au

For more information see:

Hughes, C.E. & Stevens, A. (2010) What can we learn from the Portuguese decriminalization of

illicit drugs? British Journal of Criminology, 50(6), 999-1022.

Hughes, C.E. (2006) Overcoming obstacles to reform? Making and shaping drug policy in contemporary Portugal and Australia, PhD thesis, Department of

Criminology, The University of Melbourne.