PORTUGAL'S STRATEGY: NO PRISON FOR POSSESSION

LISBON, Portugal - Agostinho Miguel Teixeira, a heroin addict, spoke in
amazement about what happened when police caught him and a friend shooting
up the other night.

"They started to help us," the 28-year-old said. "One of them turned on his
flashlight and pointed to our arms so we could do it easier, because it was
really dark."

And after four hours at the police station, Teixeira and his friend were
released, beneficiaries of a new Portuguese law decriminalizing the use of
drugs - including heroin.

The two were ordered to appear not before a court but before the newly
created Lisbon Commission for the Deterrence of Drug Addiction, only one
component of a law approved by the ruling Socialists that aims to fight
drugs with the philosophy that traffickers are criminals but users are
victims who should be helped.

Teixeira said he expects to enter a treatment center as a result.

From a pilot program in London that lets marijuana users off with a
warning to a law in France that allows police to use discretion on
tolerance, Europe has been moving toward a more pragmatic approach to drug use.

German and Swiss cities set up safe injection sites for addicts several
years ago. Madrid has opened such sites more recently; officials say
they've helped reduce crime and disease dramatically.

The Portuguese law, which took effect July 1, eliminates threat of prison
for possession of small amounts of any drug. Critics have charged that it
opens Portugal to the threat of drug tourism.

Backers of the measure call that view a mistake, because drugs remain
illegal, with their use punishable by fines or community service - just not
prison time. Being caught with even one joint could send you to the
anti-addiction commission, supporters note.

"We're trying a sort of third way between the hard approach you have in the
United States and the soft approach some countries have, like Holland,"
said Vitalino Canas, Portugal's drug-policy czar.

Drug trafficking remains punishable by up to 25 years' imprisonment. The
sale of even a single dose of a drug to a friend is considered dealing,
Canas said.

Estimates of the number of heroin addicts in Portugal range from 30,000 to
100,000. Many are infected by hepatitis, tuberculosis or HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS. Death rates are high.

A separate law that took effect in late June sets out a framework for
stepped-up efforts to help addicts, primarily through shelters and medical
programs.

That law also makes it legal for local governments or nongovernmental
organizations to set up programs for "supervised drug use" by addicted
people - in other words, so-called shooting galleries. No city or
organization, however, has stepped forward to initiate such an effort,
Canas said.

Information from The Washington Post is included in this report.