- "The idea is to get away from punishment towards
treatment," said Carlos Borges, a government policy spokesman. "We
consider a drug-dependent person to be sick, not a criminal."
-
- The decision taken by MPs on Thursday reflects less a
liberalising impulse - the social policy instincts of Portugal's ruling
socialists are fairly conservative - than a pragmatic response to the mounting
problem of drug use, especially among the young.
-
- Under the new law, drug users no longer face prison terms,
and measures will be adopted to monitor addicts and make them attend counselling.
-
-
- Police will report drug users to local authority commissions
who will ensure the addict seeks treatment. Welfare payments will be channelled
through counselling centres to addicts on condition they attend.
-
- Previously, drug users and anyone caught possessing prohibited
drugs for personal use faced up to one year in jail, though prison terms
were rarely imposed.
-
- Hard drug use has become a big social problem in the
Iberian peninsula, the principal staging post for cannabis, cocaine and
heroin entering Europe.
-
- With the authorities intercepting less than 7 per cent
of incoming traffic, vast quantities inevitably drop off in transit. Significantly,
the only EU body based in the Portuguese capital is that responsible for
drugs monitoring.
-
- Local authorities, rather than state enforcement agencies,
have led in the fight against drug abuse in both Portugal and Spain.
-
- In Lisbon's old slum area of Casal Ventoso, taken over
by drug dealers to form a notorious European black spot, the city council
has made huge efforts to build rehabilitation centres and new housing.
-
- In a similar shantytown on the southern fringes of Madrid
that is a virtual drugs supermarket, the conservative regional government
has pioneered medically-supervised drug rooms or "shooting galleries"
where addicts can test the quality of their material and inject in hygienic
conditions in the presence of doctors.
-
- This, Spanish politicians argue, is the only way to save
lives.
-
- In Portugal, the main conservative opposition party,
the Social Democrats, held back from criticising the new law, urging the
government rather to call a referendum first. But Communist and other left-wing
votes ensured victory for Antonio Guterres' Socialists, who are one seat
short of a parliamentary majority.
-
- A high proportion of prisoners in Portugal's jails are
there for drug-related offences, but the number of those sentenced for
possession or consumption is very low ñ fewer than 30, officials
say.
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- Copyright 2000 Independent UK
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