What can we learn from the Portuguese
decriminalization of illicit drugs?
Dr Caitlin Hughes
Drug Policy Modelling Program
NDARC, The University of New South Wales
Co-author: Professor Alex Stevens
University of Kent
ACT Legislative Assembly
Thursday, 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 use
2. Increase drug related harms
3. Reduce the ability of the criminal justice system to function
effectively
CDTs – numbers processed
8000
Number of processes/decisions
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2001*
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Year
Processes
Decisions
* CDTS were only operational for 6 months of 2001
2007
2008
CDT– rulings made
100%
90%
Acquital
Proportion of sanctions
80%
70%
Suspension
60%
Punitive
50%
40%
Provisional
sanction with
treatment
Provisional
sanction - non
dependent
30%
20%
10%
0%
2001*
2002
2003
2004
Year
*CDTs were only operational for 6 months of 2001
2005
2006
2007
2008
Did reform incite drug use?
Trends in any illicit drug use
- general population (aged 15-64)
14
Prevalence of use
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
15-64
15-64
15-64
Lifetime use
Recent use
Current use
2001
2007
Trends in recent use
– by age group
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
15-24
25-34
35-44
2001
2007
45-54
55-64
Trends in recent use
– by drug type
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Marijuana
Amphetamines
Ecstasy
2001
2007
Heroin
Cocaine
Trends in school students - recent
cannabis use (ESPAD data)
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1995
1999
2003
2007
Did reform increase drugrelated harms?
Trends in problematic drug users
(per 1000 pop aged 15–64 years)
– Portugal vs. Italy
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
2000
Portugal
2005
2001
2007
Italy
400
80
350
70
300
60
250
50
200
40
150
30
100
20
50
10
0
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Year
Drug-related deaths - INML
2005
2006
2007
Drug-induced deaths (INE)
Drug-related deaths (INML)
Impacts on drug-induced deaths
2008
Drug induced deaths - INE
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
23,654
38,532
No. in drug
treatment
Did reform reduce the
capacity of the criminal
justice system to function
effectively?
Portugal – Trends in CJS burden-1
16000
Number of offenders arrested
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
1998
1999
Criminal - Trafficker
2000
2001*
2002*
2003*
Year
Criminal - Trafficker-consumer
*From 1 July 2001 consumer offences became administative offences
2004*
2005*
2006*
Criminal - Consumer
2007*
2008*
Unknown
Portugal – Trends in CJS burden-2
16000
Number of offenders arrested
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
1998
1999
2000
Criminal - Trafficker
Administrative - Consumer
2001*
2002*
2003*
Year
2004*
Criminal - Trafficker-consumer
Unknown
*From 1 July 2001 consumer offences became administative offences
2005*
2006*
2007*
Criminal - Consumer
2008*
Trends in Spain
300000
Number of offenders detected
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
1998
1999
2000
2001
Criminal - Trafficker
2002
2003
Year
2004
Administrative - Consumer
2005
2006
2007
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.