Drug shoppers line up outdoors of the SAOM van for a methadone cocktail and provides within the metropolis middle of Porto, Portugal final spring. There are only a few overdose deaths within the nation the place drug dependancy is handled as an sickness moderately than a criminal offense.
Photograph by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit /Getty Pictures
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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 middle of Porto, Portugal final spring. There are only a few overdose deaths within the nation the place drug dependancy is handled as an sickness moderately than a criminal offense.
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 scuffling with 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 totally different story. Overdose deaths in Portugal are extraordinarily uncommon.
The nation has taken a radically totally different strategy to medication – decriminalizing small quantities and publicly funding dependancy companies – together with websites the place individuals can use medication like crack and heroin.
Portugal treats dependancy as an sickness moderately than a criminal offense. 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 combat its opioid epidemic?
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This episode was produced by Connor Donevan and Megan Lim. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Andrea DeLeon.
Our govt producer is Sami Yenigun.
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