Drug shoppers line up outdoors of the SAOM van for a methadone cocktail and provides within the metropolis heart of Porto, Portugal final spring. There are only a few overdose deaths within the nation the place drug dependancy is handled as an sickness somewhat than against the law.
Photograph by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit /Getty Pictures
conceal caption
toggle caption
Photograph by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit /Getty Pictures
Drug shoppers line up outdoors of the SAOM van for a methadone cocktail and provides within the metropolis heart of Porto, Portugal final spring. There are only a few overdose deaths within the nation the place drug dependancy is handled as an sickness somewhat than against the law.
Photograph by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit /Getty Pictures
Brian Mann covers the U-S opioid and fentanyl disaster for NPR. Which means he talks to lots of people battling dependancy. Time and again, he is heard tales of people that have succumbed to their dependancy — final yr 112, 000 — greater than ever in historical past.
However when Mann traveled to Portugal to report on that nation’s mannequin for coping with the opioid disaster, he heard a really completely different story. Overdose deaths in Portugal are extraordinarily uncommon.
The nation has taken a radically completely different strategy to medicine – decriminalizing small quantities and publicly funding dependancy providers – together with websites the place individuals can use medicine like crack and heroin.
Portugal treats dependancy as an sickness somewhat than against the law. Nobody has to pay for dependancy care, and nobody scrambles to navigate a poorly regulated restoration system. May Portugal’s strategy assist the U-S struggle its opioid epidemic?
For sponsor-free episodes of Take into account This, join Take into account This+ through Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
E-mail us at considerthis@npr.org.
This episode was produced by Connor Donevan and Megan Lim. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Andrea DeLeon.
Our government producer is Sami Yenigun.
