Portugal's National Drug Control Strategy

"This strategy specifies eight principles, which embody a set of values that should guide interventions in this area. ‘Humanism’, for example, is the recognition of the inalienable human dignity of citizens, including drug users, and translates into a commitment to offer a wide range of services to those in need and to adopt a legal framework that causes no harm to them. ‘Pragmatism’ calls for the adoption of solutions and interventions that are based on scientific knowledge, while ‘Participation’ calls for the involvement of the community in drug policy definition and implementation.
"This strategy also puts forward a set of 13 strategic options to guide public action in the drugs field: reinforce international cooperation; decriminalise (but still prohibit) drug use; focus on primary prevention; assure access to treatment; extend harm reduction interventions; promote social reintegration; develop treatment and harm reduction in prisons; develop treatment as an alternative to prison; increase research and training; develop evaluation methodologies; simplify interdepartmental coordination; reinforce the fight against drug trafficking and money laundering; and double public investment in the drugs field.
"These principles and strategic options, which are the foundations of the current drug policy in Portugal, were first implemented through the National Action Plan for the Fight Against Drugs and Drug Addiction — Horizon 2004 (IDT, I.P., 2001). The plan, adopted in 2001, introduced 30 primary objectives related to the increase and improvement of drug-related interventions and to the reduction of drug use, risk behaviours and drug-related harms. The Action Plan had also, for the first time, an associated budget, set according to national priorities and distributed by the entities in charge of its implementation. When the plan was conceived in 1999, drug-related public investment was expected to increase by 10 % every year between 1999 and 2004, reaching EUR 159 615 327 in its last year. An external evaluation carried out a few years later (see below) concluded, however, that it was not possible to assess whether the planned budgetary objectives were effectively attained."