What Portugal Actually Did

“Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001. The outcomes were good. Then the social investment got cut. The outcomes got worse. The lesson is not that decriminalization failed.”

Hari's chapter on Portugal is his strongest and his most dated simultaneously.

The strongest: the 2001 decriminalization of all personal drug possession, combined with substantial investment in treatment, housing, and employment, produced remarkable outcomes by 2015. HIV transmission among injecting drug users fell by approximately 95 percent. Drug-related deaths dropped. Drug use among young people did not increase.

The most dated: between 2015 and 2023, Portugal's outcomes deteriorated. Drug-related deaths increased, not to pre-2001 levels but enough to complicate the simple success narrative. The primary cause was austerity: the 2008 financial crisis and EU-imposed austerity measures cut the social programs that had made the decriminalization work.

This does not invalidate Hari's argument. It confirms it. His argument was that decriminalization alone is insufficient, what works is decriminalization plus social investment. Portugal's success period was when both were present. Portugal's decline period was when social investment was cut.

The lesson is not that decriminalization failed. The lesson is that decriminalization without sustained social investment is necessary but incomplete. Hari said this. The complexity of the evidence has since made it more specific.

Sources

• Hari, Chasing the Scream (2015)
• EMCDDA Portugal Drug Report (2023)