In a week's time, Canberra will witness a radical change: possessing small amounts of illegal drugs will not be a crime.
It will be an offence (like speeding on a road), incurring penalties, but not an actual criminal offence (as speeding technically is not).
Instead of heading to court and perhaps jail for a maximum two years, people with small quantities of heroin (1 gram), LSD (0.001 grams) and methamphetamine, cocaine, magic mushrooms, MDMA and meth (all 1.5 grams) would be directed to an information session or, if they choose, get a $100 fine.
The ACT is the first jurisdiction in Australia to radically lower the penalties for possessing heavy-duty drugs like heroin.
The ACT government does say that "drug use is not safe or encouraged, and police will still confiscate illicit drugs if found on a person".
And drug trafficking and dealing will still be a full-blown crime, incurring full-blown sentences.
The idea behind the radical change is that the so-called "war on drugs" has failed.
The alternative is better, the ACT government argues: "The reforms aim to divert people who use drugs away from the criminal justice system and encourage them to access health services."
What's the evidence?
Portugal has been here before.
In 2001, it decriminalised possession of small amounts of drugs, including heroin and cocaine (small being defined as enough for personal consumption for 10 days).
There have been some changes in the law over the succeeding two decades but no great reversal. Two decades on, drugs can still be confiscated, and possession may mean small fines or community service without a criminal record.
Talking to people who know the country well and to outside experts on drugs policy, the broad lessons are:
- Decriminalising drugs needs to be accompanied by substantial spending of public money. Spending on courts and jails falls but spending on drug treatment and rehabilitation needs to increase.
- Drug use does not jump substantially, if at all.
- But drug use may become much more obvious in public places.
Under the system in Portugal, there are groups of social workers, lawyers and health professionals who make up "Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction". When a drug user is referred to these local commissions for the first time, there is no penalty. Fines come with further referrals.
Where the user is addicted to the drug, he or she can be referred for specialist treatment (which is not compulsory).
So how's it gone?
In the first five years after the liberalisation, the use of illegal drugs rose slightly among the general population but then fell in the next five years, according to Transform, a group which studies and campaigns for the decriminalisation of drugs.
"Use among 15- to 24-year-olds fell throughout the decade, and among the general population was lower in 2012 than in 2001."
On top of that, the indications are that deaths from drug overdoses fell after the change.
"In the first five years after the reforms, drug deaths dropped dramatically. They rose slightly in the following years, before returning to 2005 levels in 2011, with only 10 drug overdose deaths recorded in that year," Transform said in a report on the two decades since the change.
The figures aren't easy to interpret because other things were going on - drug use may have been falling anyway - but what can be said is that there was no explosion of drug use after decriminalisation.
The reform also led to a change in prison populations and in the types of crimes being committed: "In 2001, over 40 per cent of the sentenced Portuguese prison population were held for drug offences, considerably above the European average, and 70 per cent of reported crime was associated with drugs," Transform said.
No downsides, then?
While decriminalisation may have been good for drug users, it has not been so good for other members of the public, according to reports from Portugal.
It has brought the use of drugs out of the shadows into public spaces.
"The experience is not as good as it's sometimes portrayed," Graciete Ferreira who travels to Portugal from Canberra every year said. She is originally from the country and has extensive family there.
"I've recently been to Porto, and there's areas where there's a lot of drug addicts just shooting up.
"It makes you feel unsafe. And it's next to schools. It's not one or two cases. There's been an increase. There's a lot more addicts out in the open where people can see them.
"When I was there, I was shocked. It's very, very sad. Very sad. They're everywhere - under the bridges, in the parks."
"It hasn't solved the problem. I worry about what's going to happen in Canberra."
She finds it odd that smoking near schools is banned "but you can see people shooting up in the front of schools".
The Washington Post painted a similar picture when it reported from Porto, the country's second city.
"In one neighbourhood, state-issued paraphernalia - powder-blue syringe caps, packets of citric acid for diluting heroin - litters sidewalks outside an elementary school," the Post reported.
"An emaciated man in striped pants sleeping in front of a state-funded drug-use centre awoke to a patrol of four officers. He sat up, then defiantly began assembling his crack pipe. Officers walked on, shaking their heads."
Money
There is a common view that the problem in Portugal became greater after the global financial crisis in 2008 when public spending was cut back.
Experts say that decriminalisation should not be about cutting public spending but about shifting spending from the court and prison system to the health system.
A study written by three Portuguese researchers concluded that there were big savings from switching drug policy out of the criminal justice system and into the health system. They put that saving at 12 per cent in the first five years of the new liberalised program and 18 per cent in the first 11 years.
But drugs decriminalisation does not come cheap. Money has to be spent.
Portugal has more than 2000 needle and syringe programs (where users can get clean equipment and dispose of used equipment). The ACT currently has two centres (in Civic and Phillip). It's true that Portugal with 10 million people is 20 times the size of the ACT but the Portuguese experience indicates that lots of these centres are needed.
Portugal has just opened two "Overdose Prevention Centres" which Transform says "are hygienic, safe spaces where people are able to take drugs safely under the supervision of trained staff". "They have access to sterile equipment and staff can respond immediately to overdose."
Portugal has 73 specialist treatment facilities, 14 detoxification units, 70 public outpatient facilities and 13 day centres for drug users.
Questions arise
Will the ACT have enough of these expensive facilities?
The government invests more than $26 million a year in drug and alcohol harm minimisation services, and a planned Watson health precinct will expand available support.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said in the final Assembly debate on drug decriminalisation that the Portugal experience showed the sky would not fall in.
"The predicted drug tourism did not materialise, nor did a predicted surge in medical costs. The main outcomes of the changes in Portugal have been lower rates of teenage drug use, fewer HIV infections and an increase in drug seizures by law enforcement," Ms Stephen-Smith said on October 20, 2022.
"Those have been the main outcomes in Portugal."
Will the public accept open drug use, including people shooting up in, say Garema Place or the shopping centres in the suburbs?
The ACT government is proud to be the first in Australia to take this course.
Will that pride be there in five years' time?
