Reeling from a dire public health crisis and seeing no results from a conventional war on drugs, the Portuguese government decided it had to chart a new course, and in 2001 it decriminalized the possession of all drugs.
When Portugal decriminalized drugs, it handed drug control from the Justice Department to the Ministry of Health, a change that captures the seismic shift in the country's perception of drug use.
Whether someone caught with drugs shows signs of addiction, they are provided with information on safe use - for example, they're advised to not use hard drugs on their own, in the case they have an adverse reaction or consume too much.
Since Portugal decriminalized drugs 14 years ago, governments and drug policy experts around the world have scrutinized data about drug use coming out of the country.
As Johann Hari notes in Chasing the Scream, a book on the international war on drugs that includes reporting from Portugal, "In the United States, 90% of the money spent on drug policy goes to policing and punishment, with 10% going to treatment and prevention. In Portugal, the ratio is the exact opposite."
It's been well documented and well debated that the war on drugs simply does not work. I think the world is slowly waking up to this and I hope decriminalization around the world will be the norm within the next decade.. and private prisons also need to go.