Let’s Try Portugal’s Solution to the Heroin Epidemic

Last year approximately 64,000 Americans died of overdoses, as many as were killed in the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars combined.

More than fifteen years ago both Portugal and the U.S. were struggling with illicit drug use. The U.S. cracked down, spending billions of dollars incarcerating drug users. Portugal, on the other hand, decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001. At the same time, it unleashed a major public health campaign to tackle addiction, treating it as a medical issue ra...