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people full of sedatives in
exchange for ridiculous amounts
of money. This could set you
back a hefty € 1500 for a 10 day
stay, with the end result of
immediate relapses after checking
out of the facility.
Those were times of discovery,
of experimenting with differ-
ent substances, trial and er-
ror in order to find a way to
stop consuming. We were also
guinea pigs for testing treat-
ments, many of them without
any scientific approval. I wasn’t
arrested during my first years of
using but the police dealt with us
in an aggressive manner, taking of Drug Use were created to
and destroying the dope right in apply the law, so those found and the same goes for overdoses.
front of us. We had to go court to in possession of and/or using Nowadays I am lucky enough
justify the what’s and why’s, who drugs are referred to it by to work as a peer counsellor at
did we buy it from and so on and security forces and courts of law. a drop in centre where I came
so forth, without any clue as to The majority of the sanctions to understand much better the
what the outcome could be. concept of harm reduction, I got
applied by these commissions access to more information and
My story is similar to that of are referrals to drug treatment became aware not only of the
many others. This reality is part and to other health services. innovations of this model but
of the narrative of many Portuguese Portugal is renowned for this also of its limitations, like for
families. It was a climate of law; it was a good thing that it instance, the paradox of handing
crisis with substance use over an injection kit knowing
poignantly felt within the got implemented. Society began that the person might not have
regarding the topic of drugs and
Portuguese society. And it was drug use from a more humane the appropriate conditions and
in this context that the law was perspective. It ceased to be a will probably resort to use in the
passed to make what has become criminal problem and became an street. We still do not have drug
known as the Decriminalization consumption rooms in Portugal,
Law. issue of public health and safety. although the 2001 law provides
for it, they were never implemented
In November 2001, Portugal
stopped classifying the acquisition, The success of this law is also - perhaps due to lack of political
will.
possession and use of drugs as probably due to the fact that These days I feel that we keep
a crime (Law 30/2000 plus there were quite a number of people far too long on
Decree 130 1/2001), although structures created and the access
they were not completely to prevention, drug treatment methadone programmes due to
lack of suitable social responses
“depenalized”. The use of illicit and harm reduction was and we need to invest more in
psychoactive substances contin- facilitated as well. From a health social reintegration interventions.
ues to be an act punishable by perspective, the law change was I would like to see the possibility to
law, however it ceased to be re- of the utmost importance, as
garded as a behaviour that ought these past 15 years saw a access medical heroin for those
who can’t adapt to neither
to be the object of a court case reduction in injecting drug use, methadone nor buprenorphine.
and came to be bound by greater access to treatment and I think the state should not
an administrative o f f e n s e . harm reduction, an even greater penalize users see the absurdity
Commissions for the Dissuasion decrease of new HIV infections
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WHACK35_LYOT.indd 60 11-Oct-16 4:25:33 PM
