PORTUGAL GIVES ADDICTS A BREAK - AND A HAND

Separating The Crime Of Drug Dealing From The Offense Of Using

LISBON, Portugal - Afonso Henriques, a Rastafarian and carpenter, began
using marijuana when he was 11 and started smoking heroin at 21. He became
an intravenous heroin user a few years ago and developed a fierce,
uncontrollable habit.

Mr. Henriques, 41, is tired. He still loves getting high, but he can't bear
the pain in his kidneys and stomach when he wakes up each morning. He knows
he can no longer work and can only hope to make money by criminal pursuits.
He wants to stop using heroin.

Desperate and afraid, he walked into a big white government bus parked
outside the Santa Apolonia train station recently and asked - for the first
time - for help. The mobile medical team placed Mr. Henriques in a
methadone program in an effort to get him off heroin.

Mr. Henriques was grateful for the opportunity. He praised a recent
overhaul of Portuguese drug policy that has removed the threat of jail for
people found with small amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, "Ecstasy"
and other drugs.

"With the new law, there are a lot less problems with the police," he said,
standing outside the bus and nervously smoothing the dreadlocks that
cascade past his shoulders. "Five years ago, friends of mine died from
drugs. There was no program then, but now it's much more open.

"Drugs are good; that's why people use them, but addiction is very, very
bad. I would have to rob now to get money for drugs, and I don't want to do
that."

No one knows whether his treatment will be effective. But the fact that
people in such dire straits are willing to turn to the government for help
without fear of arrest encourages Portuguese health-care authorities who
have embraced an accelerating European trend toward drug decriminalization.

"Since the new law took effect in July, 500 people have entered treatment,"
said Vitalino Canas, Portugal's drug czar and principal architect of the
new policy, which treats drug use as a health problem, not a crime. "Even
if only 200 or 300 are successfully treated, it's better than the old system.

"If they were in the criminal judicial system, they would go to jail or pay
a fine, but they would get no treatment."

Portugal has moved faster than other European countries in the
liberalization of drug laws, but the belief that traditional strategies
have failed is reflected in changes to the laws in Britain, Spain, Belgium
and elsewhere.

Mr. Canas said the change was needed because Portugal's old law handled
drug dealers and users in the same harsh way. Casual users convicted of
drug violations were put in prison, where they often acquired serious drug
habits that led to a life of crime.

"From the legal point of view, we were treating traffickers and their
victims the same way, which is not logical," Mr. Canas said. The law
"didn't prevent the spread of soft drugs in the '70s or the development of
a serious heroin addiction problem in the '80s. And it didn't prevent the
spread of synthetic drugs like Ecstasy in the '90s.

"The law was not helping to get people off the street."

With an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 heroin addicts in a population of 10
million, Portugese officials believe they have the highest rate of heroin
addiction in the European Union. The nation also has one of the highest
rates of HIV infection, partially because addicts often share needles.

In place of the old punitive system, the Portuguese law makes sharp
distinction between drug users and drug dealers.

Dealers still face long prison terms. But someone found with enough drugs
for 10 daily doses or less is not treated as a criminal. Instead of facing
trial, the user appears before a three-person commission that usually
consists of a lawyer and social workers. A casual user can be fined a small
amount or face other sanctions, such as having a driver's license
suspended. Authorities have found that one effective tactic is to
confiscate the audio systems of people smoking hashish on Portugal's
beautiful beaches.

No fine can be levied if the user has an addiction, because authorities
believe an addict will steal to raise the money. The addict is strongly
encouraged to enter a treatment program.

Dr. Anabela Almeida, a social worker who sits on the Lisbon commission that
handles "personal use" drug cases, said the new law allows addicts to be
open about their problems. She said many have tried unsuccessfully to quit
heroin.

"They don't have a job; they don't have a family. It's very hard for them
to believe in themselves," Dr. Almeida said. "One told me the drug was
always calling him, and everything around him reminded him of the drug.
Society should never treat these people as criminals."

In addition to changing the law, the government has put in place an
aggressive needle-exchange and condom-distribution system to combat the
spread of AIDS. Drug treatment centers have been set up in smaller towns
and cities, and dirty needles can be traded for clean syringes at
pharmacies in even the smallest villages.

The government also encourages the opening of so-called "shooting rooms" in
major cities so hard-core addicts who refuse to seek treatment can have a
safe environment in which to inject drugs.

When the law was enacted by the socialist government in July, officials in
the opposition conservative party warned that Portugal would be transformed
into a drug paradise. Users would come from other countries, they said.

Thus far, officials say, there are no such indications. Authorities say
that drug use remains illegal and that police will still confront people
found indulging in public.

"It's still an offense," said Danilo Ballotta, a legal analyst with the
European Union's drug addiction monitoring center in Lisbon. "If you smoke
a joint in the street and a police officer comes by, most probably he will
take the drug and identify you."

In Portugal, the drug law removes the threat of any criminal proceedings or
any criminal record for the casual user or addict, said Mr. Ballotta. Only
three European Union countries - Finland, Sweden and Norway - still endorse
the view that strong police action is an effective deterrent to drug use,
he said. In general, European countries have rejected the "zero tolerance"
approach that prevails in the United States, Mr. Ballotta said.

Advocates of the new law concede that there is no definitive proof that it
is working. They believe it may be too late to help a generation of heroin
addicts hooked in the mid-1980s and now developing grave illnesses
including AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis.

Heroin use is not fashionable among Portugal's young people, and there has
been a slight drop in the number of people using the highly addictive
substance, said Joao Figueira, chief inspector of Portugal's version of the
Drug Enforcement Administration.

But there has been an explosive growth in the use of synthetic drugs such
as Ecstasy. Federal anti-drug police seized 30 Ecstasy tablets in 1999 but
confiscated more than 20,000 the next year and more than 40,000 in 2001.

"I think it's a serious health risk for our young people," Mr. Figueira
said. "Long-term, it creates psychological addiction, and they need to take
other drugs to rest, and they turn to heroin, and that will make them
addicts."The government is also trying to protect Ecstasy users from toxic
substances. A "Contact Point" bus - the same one Mr. Henriques visited -
has been fitted with a mobile lab that can make a preliminary analysis of
Ecstasy tablets to determine whether they contain unwanted and potentially
dangerous chemicals.

People who intend to take Ecstasy at discos are urged to have drugs tested
on the bus, which is parked near popular nightspots.

"A lot of the stuff we're testing is not real Ecstasy. About 40 percent of
it is fake," said Trigo Helder, who supervises the mobile medical team.

"We say, 'Look, you were about to take this, and we don't know what it is.'
At first they resisted us and didn't trust us. They were suspicious and
thought we were police, but we have built trust through word of mouth.

"We are trying to reduce the risks."