HOW PORTUGAL DEALT WITH DRUG REFORM

Tory leader Michael Howard has pledged a future Conservative
administration to reverse the government's relaxation of the cannabis
laws, to take effect next week, dismissing the reform as "absurd" and
confusing.

But in Portugal, where the possession and use of small quantities of
any drug - hard or soft - was decriminalised by the then Socialist
government in 2001, the centre-right coalition that took power a year
later opted to leave the reform in place.

"The government came in thinking in terms of destroying these
measures, but once such steps are taken, you don't go back," Socialist
Party leader Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues told BBC News Online.

"However great the temptation to turn back, it won't."

Fernando Negrao, the former police chief whom the new government chose
to head the IDT, Portugal's Institute for Drugs and Addiction, agrees.

"This government not only kept the reform in place, but reinforced the
health aspect of it, by bringing the institute under the Ministry of
Health," he said.

"There were fears Portugal might become a drug paradise, but that
simply didn't happen."

Under the 2001 law, consuming drugs is still illegal, but anyone
caught with up to 10 daily doses - defined for each drug, by weight -
for their own use is not arrested and cannot go to jail.

Instead they are taken to a police station, their details noted, and
they are ordered to attend a hearing at one of 18 regional "dissuasion
commissions".

The commission can send an offender for treatment if he or she is an
addict, impose a fine, or let him or her off with a warning.

"Portugal's experiment is unique," said Mr Negrao.

"It decriminalises drug use, but leaves administrative penalties in
place."

Some police representatives have complained that dealers can easily
get around the new law, by carrying just a few doses at a time.

The national director of Portugal's main urban police force, the
Policia de Seguranca Publica, recently called for a lower cut-off
point, to tighten the noose on dealers.

Supporters of the law counter that it does not stop someone being
charged with dealing, even if they are carrying just one dose, because
it is up to police and public prosecutors to decide whether there is
sufficient evidence of dealing.

In any case, according to Dr Luis Patricio, director of the Taipas
CAT, or rehabilitation centre, in downtown Lisbon, the figure of 10
doses has no medical basis.

Major Problem

And while it might be normal for a consumer of hashish to have more
than 10 doses in their possession, it would not be for a heroin user.

One major problem is that courts around the country are not applying
the law consistently.

But those who framed it say this just means there is a need for
greater coordination between the new dissuasion commissions and the
judicial system.

Portugal's - and now the UK's - legislative reforms are part of a
European pattern.

Substitution Treatment

In its 2003 report, the EU's drug monitoring agency noted that member
states are taking an increasingly pragmatic approach, adapting
legislation to facilitate the treatment and rehabilitation of drug
users and addicts - even as their security forces are given wider
powers to crack down on trafficking.

The EU agency noted a 34% increase in the previous year in the
availability of substitution treatment - principally methadone -
across the continent.

Some 400,000 addicts now receive such treatment, with the biggest rise
in countries with low initial provision, including Portugal.

There has been little systematic evaluation of the results of such
measures, though.

Shooting Galleries

In Portugal, a study of the impact of the reform has only just
started.

Health and social workers here say that years of official neglect - in
which needle-exchange schemes were a rarity - are to blame for
Portugal's soaring rate of HIV infection.

Once the lowest in the EU, it is now the highest, after
Spain.

The Socialist government also pushed through legislation allowing for
so-called shooting galleries - where addicts could inject drugs under
the supervision of health professionals.

But it is up to local councils to take the initiative and none has.