decriminalization in Portugal and both homicide and drug mortality rates relative to other European Union countries. Consider a few addiction benzo abuse statistics: Increased access to the drug is a key reason for higher overdoses. However, available data Portugal, country lying along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. From the most recent surveys, the prevalence of any drug use in the last year was 9.4% in England and Wales, 12% in Scotland, and 5.9% in Northern Ireland. Between 2017 and 2018, nicotine vaping increased in college students from 6.1% to 15.5% and from 7.9% to 12.5% in non-college adults. Fifteen years ago when Portugal decriminalized the consumption of all narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances it was both a bold and a desperate move to curb the drug problem that the country faced at the time. Back in 1999, Portugal experienced 369 overdose deaths and in 2016, the number was just 30. Drug use is a hidden and stigmatised activity. This study is an empirical assessment of the impact of the drug decriminalization policy followed by Portugal in July 2001, on the price of illicit drugs. In Portugal, which is set to soon introduce consumption rooms, the decriminalisation of drug use caused a steep fall in the drug death rate which now ⦠That group includes a lawyer, psychiatrist, and social worker, to help the person who uses drugs access treatment and support. Portugal. Many proponents of decriminalization claim that Portugal managed to decrease overall drug use, but it really depends on how we choose to interpret the statistics. Portugal ranked first for kidnappings amongst European Union in 2006. document highlighted select statistics showing increased drug use in Portugal among certain populations and for certain substances. Some important statistics on heroin use in the US from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the Monitoring the Future National Survey include the following: Nearly 170,000 people over the age of 12 tried heroin for the first time in 2013âthis number has not changed much over the last decade. Desperate to change the situation, illicit substances were decriminalized in Portugal in 2001. Mythbusters: Drugs are legal in Portugal. 51.6% Ranked 1st. "Portugal has got a huge amount to teach us," Hari told host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani. Although neither a center of drug production nor a significant source of drugs destined for the U.S., Portugal is a gateway for drugs entering Europe, particularly from South America and western Africa. Re:Drug decriminalisation in Portugal. The majority of these (49%) are injecting drug users and heterosexuals (33%). In 2001, Portugal became the first country to decriminalize the consumption of all drugs⦠In this paper, I analyse the Portuguese drug policy, its historical foundation, its success and its possible future. Quite simply, theyâve flipped the issue of drug use from a criminal issue to a health one. The assumption that a liberalized drug policy will cause a drug pandemic of the type allegedly created by opium use in 19th century China has just received the next 10-penny nail in its venerable coffin. alcohol use and abuse in Portugal reported that an increase in per capita alcohol consumption of one litre is accompanied by a simultaneous increase in the male suicide rate of 1.9%. The Netherlands founded the Drug Information and Monitoring System (DIMS) in 1992, which was the first pill testing initiative in Europe. One more result: a considerable measure less wiped out individuals. 19 University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. In most cases, the Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction recommends treatment, rather than issuing a fine. Yahoo! . drug use in portugal has dropped since decriminalization. That is a 67% rate of growth. The resulting statistics coming out of Portugal are remarkable. Since Portugal decriminalised the possession of all illicit drugs in 2001, it has become a battleground for competing ideas about the effects of drug policy. Rx Drug Misuse has Mixed Results. The country grew to be in crisis, with one in ten people using heroin at the height of the problem. That is around 7,2% of the total Dutch population aged 18 and older.Among young adults aged between 18-24, 2017 usage is the highest at around 25 percent. Portugal - Homicide rate. 58 015. 61 806. This overview contains 10 interesting drugs facts from the Netherlands that reflect the liberal Dutch drug policy. Drug and/or Substance Abuse Treatment. The official figures yield the following graph. Portugal's current drug-induced death rate, three per million residents, is more than five times lower than the European Union's average of 17.3, according to EU figures. Data rounded. This made the country the first in the world to do so, across the board. In 2001, Portugal decriminalized the use and possession of illicit drugs while it kept criminal penalties for production, sales, and trafficking. "In the year 2000, Portugal had one of the worst problems in Europe with drugs. Drug Policy in Portugal describes the process, context, ideas, and values that enabled Portugal to make the transition to a public health response to drug use and possession. Tags: Portugal Pharma Ranking MSD Mylan Bayer Rankings. Portugal, for example, has found that since decriminalisation both addiction and substance misuse rates have gone down. Drug statistics in Portugal and Holland demonstrate that in todayâs world drug use is strictly a lifestyle choice. It also shows how organised crime groups remain active and resilient, by adapting transportation models, trafficking routes and concealment methods, even during the pandemic | EMCDDA and Europol, Portugal. The highest rates are reported in Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and the UK (6 to 10 cases per 1 000 adults). The illegal activities have been considered within national accounts sincethe changeover to the ESA2010. these are, i think, the more important and relevant stats. Cannabis remains the most frequently used illicit drug, followed by ⦠Drug Use. A fter massively reforming its drug policy at the turn of the century, Portugal stands as a global leader of evidence-based policy grounded on the principle of harm reduction. 73 984. The estimated coefficients are found to be statistically significant at the five percent level based on the standard errors computed with the Newey-West method, T WENTY YEARS ago Lisbonâs Casal Ventoso neighbourhood was the biggest open-air drug market in Europe. âIt is safe to say,â the Fact Sheet concluded, âthat claims by drug legalization advocates regarding the impact of Portugal Total population (2016): 10 304 434 Population aged 15 years and older (15+): 86% Population in urban areas: 64% Income group (World Bank): High income ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: LEVELS AND PATTERNS 26% BEER 61% WINE 5% OTHER Recorded alcohol per capita (15+) consumption (in litres of pure alcohol) by type of alcoholic beverage, 2016 Drugs policy: The UK versus Portugal. Portugal (red), OECD - Total (black) National landings in domestic ports. Because people with substance issues are treated rather than jailed, they also have a better chance of avoiding or overcoming addiction. Since the year 2000, the tax-to-GDP ratio in Portugal has increased from 31.1% to 34.8%. In most countries, problem drug use is characterised by chronic opiate use. In 2018, homicide rate for Portugal was 0.8 cases per 100,000 population. This drug may be the secret behind Portugal's low Covid-19 death rate. In the 1980s and 1990s, people in Portugal faced a high rate of drug use. This overview contains 10 interesting drugs facts from the Netherlands that reflect the liberal Dutch drug policy. Itâs not a miracle or perfect solution. Desperate to change the situation, illicit substances were decriminalized in Portugal in 2001. Prior to 2000 Portugal did not report HIV cases so analysis of the HIV epidemic is difficult. 3 times more than Portugal Drugs > Lifetime cannabis use: 7.6% Ranked 3rd. The latest data from the Office for National Statistics: Drug misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2020 showed â Overall drug use continued to remain stable, with around 1 in 11 adults aged 16 to 59 years having taken a drug ⦠The description is composed by our digital data assistant. Today, it boasts one of Europeâs lowest rates of drug, alcohol, and tobacco use and the number of overdose deaths in 2016 was just 26. Portugal ranked 8th last for total crimes amongst High income OECD countries in 2002. But if the US could achieve Portugalâs death rate from drugs, they would save one life every 10 minutes. The very opposite is the case ... since Portugal decriminalised drugs, drug use there has gone up, the number of people using drugs has gone up, the number of homicides related to drug use has gone up by 40 per cent, and drug-related HIV/AIDS and Hepititis C is up and the rate in Portugal is now eight times that of EU countries". Country Drug Report 2017 â Portugal 5 Drug use Prevalence and trends In Portugal, use of illicit substances among the adult general population seems to have been on the decline over the past decade. threat to public health, Portugal decided to adopt a health-led approach. The Impact of Drug Decriminalization in Portugal* This paper investigates the impact of drug decriminalization in Portugal using the Synthetic Control Method. Many proponents of decriminalization claim that Portugal managed to decrease overall drug use, but it really depends on how we choose to interpret the statistics. In response to this emergency, Portugal launched its decriminalization program that year, and the rest is history. According to the 2020 Global Peace Index rankings, Portugal is the 3rd most peaceful country in the world. In the '90s, Portugal had one of the worst rates of overdose deaths in Europe, as well as the highest rate of HIV among drug users. It also shows how organised crime groups remain active and resilient, by adapting transportation models, trafficking routes and concealment methods, even during the pandemic | EMCDDA and Europol, Portugal. Similarly, an estimation of prostitution activitiesw⦠Hence, the results appear to be mixed. Number of People with HIV âThere were approximately 38 million people across the globe with HIV/AIDS in 2019. Overdose deathsdecreasedby over 80 percent after decriminalization.12 In 1999, 369 drug overdose deaths were recorded in Portugal (36.2 per million)13; by 2015 that number had fallen to 54 (5.2 per million).14 Portugalâs drug-induced mortality rate was 5.8 deaths per million in 2015, which is far lower than the European average of Drugs are used by many different people and in many situations. The top 20 pharma companies in Portugal ranked by sales and market share for the year leading up to March 2018. Now, itâs a public-health success story with a system that's been copied by its European neighbours. This is a far cheaper, far more humane way to tackle the problem. With regard to alcohol smuggling, it is assumed not to berelevant in Portugal. 8 The SDR per 100 000 population for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis was 17.51 in 1999 and 16.03 in 2000. NB: Based on estimates of Portugal's labelled and unlabelled public expenditure in 2013-16. 28-30 August 2019, Second Expert Working Group on improving drug statistics and strengthening the Annual Report Questionnaire (ARQ). Since then, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine or heroin go unindicted and possession is ⦠Summary. For the past 50 years, Italy, Portugal and the United States have taken radically different approaches to drug enforcement and to the epidemics of drug use and addiction that have afflicted each country.One, the U.S., has emphasized punishment. Portugal, which decriminalized the personal possession of all drugs in 2001 in response to high illicit drug use, has much lower rates of drug use than the ⦠these are, i think, the more important and relevant stats. Portugal now has the lowest drug-related death rate in Western Europe, with a mortality rate a tenth of Britain's and a fiftieth of the United States'. All residents in Portugal have access to health care provided by the National Health Service, financed mainly through taxation. Forinternational transactions, only tobacco smuggling and drug trafficking areconsidered. Portugalâs cannabis laws are regarded as among the most progressive in the world. Rather than ⦠A 2015 report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found some of the following data on Portugal: Has the second lowest fatal overdose rate in the European Union, at 3 drug deaths per 1 million people Rates of HIV and hepatitis infection decreased dramatically Portugalâs law enforcement cooperation with the United States and other international partners to combat drug trafficking is outstanding, featuring multiple, highly successful joint investigations every year. 9 From 1996 through 2013, the latest date for this statistic, the number of benzo prescriptions grew from 8.1 million to 13.5 million per year. Charges for possessing marijuana ⦠Decimals affect ranking. Though Portugal homicide rate fluctuated substantially in recent years, it tended to decrease through 1999 - 2018 period ending at 0.8 cases per 100,000 population in 2018. In Portugal, for instance, virtually all drug use was decriminalized in 2001. Portugal has supported drug decriminalization for more than a decade. The focus on treatment, care, and rehabilitation as an alternative to criminal punishment of drug users is intended to stabilize the demand while a more e ective law enforcement targeting drug tra cking and production was designed to reduce the supply of illicit drugs. Death Rate Per 100,000 Age Standardized SELECT CAUSE. It can support lower addiction rates and substance abuse rates. In 1987, the Centro das Taipas in Lisbon was created, an institution specialising in the treatment of drug addicts. It ravishes communities, endangers businesses, strains government institutions, and drags down the wider economy. PORTUGAL. Since then, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine or heroin go unindicted and possession is ⦠COVID-19. In Portugal, meanwhile, the drug-induced death rate has plummeted to five times lower than the E.U. Since the start of the epidemic and as at the end of December 2003 23,374 persons have been diagnosed with HIV. Although the drug war is global, the United States remains an outlier among wealthy nations for the punitive harshness of its drug policy. Statistics on Drug Misuse, England, 2019 Throughout the 1980s, Portugal tried this approach, but to no avail: By 1999, nearly 1% of the population was addicted to heroin, and drug-related AIDS deaths in ⦠Data Source: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION 2018. A rate of 4 drug deaths per million population (pmp) means that Portugal only had a higher drug death rate in Europe than Romania, and significantly lower than the ⦠However, it wasnât until 2018 that medicinal cannabis was legalised. Drug-related Crimes. Of these, 36.2 million were adults and 1.8 million were children (<15 years old). Portugal is a strong partner in combating terrorism and deployed military trainers to Iraq in the fight against ISIL. List of the Pros of Drug Decriminalization. Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Between 1998 and 2011, the number of people in drug treatment programmes had increased by over 60%. Twelve years ago, Portugal eliminated criminal penalties for drug users. MSD leads the way with EUR 148 million in sales and a 5.4 percent market share, followed by Mylan and Bayer. In 2001, the government decriminalised personal cannabis use, focusing on treatment rather than punishment. Over the same period, the OECD average Portugal did not become a âdrug paradiseâ. 18 European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, Portugal. Fortunately, there are ways for drug addicts to get the help they need to recover. Large-scale medicinal cannabis cultivation has been occurring in Portugal for some years, however, until last year, domestic use and possession IN PORTUGAL was prohibited by law. Drug addiction is a worldwide problem. Between 2018 and 2019 the OECD average decreased from 33.9% to 33.8%. drug induced deaths have dropped 75%. Portugal ranked first for kidnappings amongst European Union in 2006. Article content João Goulão, the architect of is Portugalâs 2001 overhaul of drug policy, says drug decriminalization would be a disaster without easy access to treatment. drugs in Portugal is well above the European average,21 it has declined dramatically over the past decade, falling from 1,016 to 56 between 2001 and 2012.22 Over the same period, the number of new cases of AIDS among people who inject drugs also decreased, from 568 to 38.23 A similar, downward Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population) 1971 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000. The number of HIV diagnoses caused by injection drug use has plummeted by more than 90 percent. There is a complete and absurd campaign of manipulation of Portuguese. A 2015 study found that since the Portugal Drug Policy was introduced, drug misuse decreased by 18%. Portugalâs regional panels typically impose no penalties for cannabis use, the most-used illicit drug in Portugal. Since 2001, possession or use of any drug has been treated as a health issue in Portugal. . Alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, magic truffles and other things are part of this sheet with drugs facts, statistics and sources. Portuguese Minister of Health Dr Adalberto Campos Fernandes announced on 5 July 2018 that Portugal has achieved 2 of the 3 HIV targets set by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), known as the 90â90â90 targets. "It is estimated that there were 33,290 high-risk opioid users in Portugal in 2015, which is about 5.2 per 1,000 of the adult population. The number of deaths by drug overdose in Portugal is actually one of the lowest in all of the European Union, at just 4.5 per million of inhabitants against the average in the EU of 19.2 (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2016). The flow of drugs to consumer countries may stay constant or even increase, placing the burden on countries like the U.S. to develop more effective demand reduction policies. June 26, 2007June 27, 2007 COHA. This made the country the first in the world to do so, across the board. The applied econometric methodology compares Portuguese drug-related variables with the ones extracted from a convex combination of similar European countries. 1 May 2013. 1. Once continental Europeâs greatest power, Portugal shares commonalities, geographic and cultural, with the countries of both northern Europe and the Mediterranean. In the UK, you can get up to seven years in prison for possession of Class A drugs. Statistics on Drug Misuse, England, 2019 This facility was the responsibility of the Ministry of Health, and was the first in the network of centres specialising in treating drug addiction which now covers the whole country. The figure for U.S. high school sophomores is 32%. âWelcome to Lisbonâs drugs supermarket,â a police officer said to a visitor in 2001, surveying the daily depravity with a shrug. More importantly, adolescent drug use, as well as Drug and/or Substance Abuse Treatment. Year. What they have discovered since they made this effort is that not only do addiction rates to the once illegal drugs go down, but so do the substance abuse rates. Total tax revenue exclusive of taxes collected for the EU. 20 Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In Europe, Estonia has the highest number of drug-related deaths, with 126 cases per million inhabitants. Portugal's current drug-induced death rate, three per million residents, is more than five times lower than the European Union's average of 17.3, according to EU figures. Rx Opioid Misuse: Significant Five Year Drop in Both Groups The number of HIV diagnoses caused by injection drug use has plummeted by more than 90 percent. The distribution and sale of controlled substances is still a criminal offense in Portugal, but possession and use of drugs are handled as ⦠Portugal's homicide rate bucked the European trend by increasing in the 2000s, but there seems to be little evidence that explicitly links this to drug usage, and on this count Ms Phillips' comments do not appear to paint the full picture. Drug-related deaths, specifically measured, indicated a decline in mortality from most drugs. The Impact of Drug Decriminalization in Portugal* This paper investigates the impact of drug decriminalization in Portugal using the Synthetic Control Method. Drug Policy Facts is sponsored by the Real Reporting Foundation and Common Sense for Drug Policy. Drug Addiction Facts & Stats. Goulão was on the eleven member anti-drug commission that formulated law 30/2000 which decriminalized all drugs starting July 1, 2001. A further 12% are homo/bi-sexual. Portugal later changed its definition to only those deaths that were caused by overdose or poisoning, and in 2009 reanalysed their data back to 2002. Twelve years ago, Portugal eliminated criminal penalties for drug users. In the 1980s and 1990s, people in Portugal faced a high rate of drug use. Given all the positive outcomes generated by this innovative policy, the Global Commission Lifetime drug users (defined as people who have tried any drug, even once) actually rose from 8% to 12% between 2001-2007, then declined once more to 9.5% in 2014. Consider a few addiction benzo abuse statistics: Increased access to the drug is a key reason for higher overdoses. The Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug use in older teens also declined. 1999-2018. Mexican Drug Policy: Internal Corruption in an Externalized War. 71 139. 5,544 2,532 5,454 8,231 9,051 12,343 12,944. Harm reduction is the right way to treat drug abuse. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). The OECDâsannual Revenue Statistics report found that the tax-to-GDP ratio in Portugal did not change between 2018 and 2019, remaining at 34.8%. But Portugal started with one of the lowest rates of drug use in Europe â far lower than American rates â and remains below the EU average. The number of individuals in Portugal arrested for a drug offenses between 1990 and 1999 tripled, from 3,586 to 13,020 (EMCDDA 2004 ). ICD-10 CODES: F11-F16, F18-F19, X41-X42, X44 . Regarding drug use there was an increase up until 2007, but there has been a negative trend ever since and the prevalence of drugs at this point is actually lower than when the law was changed.