Harm reduction is the right way to treat drug abuse

TWENTY YEARS ago Lisbon’s Casal Ventoso neighbourhood was the biggest open-air drug market in Europe. But since 2001, when Portugal decriminalised most drug use, the number of addicts has plummeted, and these days one has to know where to find them. One recent evening, three outreach workers from CRESCER, a charity that helps drug users, trudged up a hillside carrying bags of clean syringes, saline solution and pastries. In a grove of cane plants, half-a-dozen people were smoking crack or injecting heroin. A gaunt man leant over a friend’s face, helping him plunge a needle into his neck.

Marta Correia, a psychologist at CRESCER, is friendly with many of Casal Ventoso’s drug users, but the thin fellow was unfamiliar. “Call me John Doe,” he joked, grinning. He had been shooting heroin for 25 years, since he was 15, he said. Ms Correia gave him a pastry and some syringes, accepting used ones in return. Other users got sheets of tinfoil for their pipes, and were encouraged to enter treatment.