PORTUGAL LEGALISES DRUG USE

Rolling Back The Drugs Laws

The Portuguese Government has voted to decriminalise the consumption
of illegal drugs such as cannabis and heroin.

Drug users will now be treated as sick people in need of medical
help.

Previously, drug users and those caught in possession of small amounts
of banned drugs for personal use faced up to a year's
imprisonment.

The sale and trafficking of illegal drugs remain crimes.

Under the new law police will report drug takers to special local
authority commissions which will ensure addicts seek treatment.

"The idea is to get away from punishment towards treatment,"
government spokesman Carlos Borges told Reuters news agency.

The ruling Socialist Party, which is one seat short of an outright
parliamentary majority, was backed in the vote by the Communist Party
and other left-of-centre parties.

Referendum call

The main conservative opposition party, the Social Democrats, had
urged the government to call a referendum on the proposed new law.

Prime Minister Antonio Guterres rejected the referendum idea on the
grounds that the change being put forward was not sufficiently
sweeping to merit a national vote.

A significant proportion of prisoners in Portugal's jails are there
for drug-related offences, but the number of people sentenced simply
for possession or consumption is very low.

"It would not be more than a couple of dozen," said one government
official.

Portugal becomes the third member of the European Union, after Spain
and Italy, to decriminalise the consumption and possession of small
quantities of drugs.