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Portugal’s 14 Year Marijuana Experiment Shows Great Results

Marguerite Arnold

August 15th, 2017

Policy

The cannabis legalization discussion right now is actually the only the tip of a still-uncracked iceberg. And despite all the good “global warming” on that front, there is still more to be done.

Yes, since 2014, there has been a global sea change in many aspects of this discussion, mostly still by led by cannabis. But many issues remain. In every country where some kind of legalization is occurring, starting with medical, supply chain, control and payment issues, including insurance are all front and centre right now.

The real question? How far to go? And on what?

The results of certain countries, including Portugal, in fact, suggest at minimum, that drug use needs to be viewed within the context of overall public health rather than law enforcement.

In large part this is also because countries are deciding to go the “medical first” route at the moment. This could easily push full rec reform back a decade to 15 years if left in isolation. Luckily this is not the case. No matter how staunchly Germany says it is “medical only” for right now, for example, popular discontent with the status quo and severe patient shortages (not to mention stratospheric prices at pharmacies) are clearly not going to satisfy a populace ready for change. Especially because they see what is going on in just the rest of Europe.

And beyond Spanish experiments with cannabis clubs and Dutch coffeeshops, there is also another inspiration that might in fact, become the driving force of change in Europe too.

There are many reasons this well might be the case. This starts with the divided presence already of the firms who will be the largest established cannabis providers on the continent after the German government makes its bid play.

Portugal.

What Is In The Recipe of Portuguese Drug Reform?

To make things simple, let’s start here. July 2017 is the 16th anniversary of the country’s decision to decriminalize all drugs. That this happened at all, including in the midst of dire warnings about what might happen if they did is one thing. That it has become a global model is another.

However, before the many, many accomplishments of this sovereign, country model are touted, and there are many, there is another thing to consider. The unique recipe and timing of the country’s drug laws now are not likely to be duplicated many other places pondering, at minimum, how to treat cannabis.

That said, there is no doubt that the Portuguese idea is working, and producing some startlingly good results.

The first place this starts is in the political change in leadership of the country. During the middle part of the last century, Portugal was ruled by a military dictatorship. In the mid 1970’s, a leftist democratic coalition again managed to take over control of the government. At that point, many expats also returned from colonies and elsewhere. It is hard to explain to people who have never lived through a dictatorship. However countries who emerge from them tend to go in the other direction as compensation. On many issues. The so-called Carnation Revolution also created an environment where even experimentation with hard drugs was also at least tolerated.

Many of these people were also intellectuals. And drug users, of various kinds. The attitude towards drugs in general, even in high ranking government bureaucrats, was very different than the political temperature (at least naturally) of current mainstream political regimes across Europe today.

Open Season Seems Not To Work

Regardless, this laissez faire attitude was not the answer either. Along with liberty came excess, along with a host of other issues, many of them economic. AIDS/HIV infection spread, thanks to dirty needles. At its peak, the rate of both drug addiction and at least HIV infection was the highest in Europe. By 1999, a full 1% of the population was addicted to heroin.

Something had to give.

In 2001, Portugal decriminalized all drugs and began to focus on drug use as a mental health issue. Certainly as it applies to those who use them. This includes cannabis. It also includes the much larger and looming issue – junkies.

And herein, specifically, no matter how they got there, the Portuguese may well have stumbled upon an issue still plaguing every country and region where legalization of cannabis is now being considered.

Today, no matter the individual ingredients in the mix, Portugal has the lowest fatal drug overdoses of any country in Europe, with the exception of Romania. Whatever they are doing here is also apparently working better than even the Czech Republic’s foray in a similar direction. And of the top ten countries in Europe with the lowest drug-related deaths, Portugal and the CR are the only two where drugs are decriminalized. Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, Cyprus, Slovakia and France are hardly known as drug-friendly countries. Turkey only just recently legalized medical use to stop illegal drug trafficking.

Here is what seems to be the takeaway. No matter the flavour, colour or leaning of the Portuguese government overall, they appear to have produced a winning strategy (in a still poor country) that other places cannot touch.

Further, the fact that they seem to have whipped their own opioid epidemic at a time when this is surging elsewhere, is politically palatable if not legitimate no matter where such ideas proliferate or come from on the political spectrum.

And this is where it gets interesting.

In every region, including the U.S., where cannabis legalization is now in the fore, opioid drug addiction is out of control. And while this has not been said explicitly yet, it is also about to be. Giving junkies cannabis is one way to help them ease off a far more dangerous drug. Whether it is injected in a crack den. Or popped out of a prescription bottle.

On that front alone, the Portuguese experiment is suddenly highly relevant. Including ongoing discussions about the legalization, at minimum for medical purposes, of cannabis.

This article was published by CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN), owner and operator of CFN Media, the industry’s leading agency and digital financial media network dedicated to the burgeoning CBD and legal cannabis industries. Call +1 (833) 420-CNFN for more information.

About Marguerite Arnold

Marguerite Arnold is a veteran investigative and markets journalist, American expat and author. She has covered the cannabis industry from Germany for the last six years. Her book, Green: The First Year of Modern American Cannabis Reform about the American market in 2014 has just been republished as she is writing the sequel about Europe and the global revolution this year. Green II: Spreading Like Kudzu will be published in 2020. She is also a noted technologist and entrepreneur. Her blockchain-based digital prescription platform MedPayRx was just shortlisted by the German Ministry of Health as one of the "Top 20" use cases for blockchain in healthcare.

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