Portugal Humane Approach To Drug Addictions Pays Off

LISBON, PORTUGAL - OCTOBER 04: Patient Rita Pestana holds her puppy while her husband takes his daily dose of 85 milligrams of methadone outside a van parked near Praca Espanha on October 04, 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal. The daily methadone program, run by the Ares do Pinhal Association for Social Inclusion, is part of Portugal's radical turn from 2001 decriminalizing drug use and placing emphasis on treating drug addiction with a public health approach. Nowadays the number of heroin addicts in Portugal has gone down by half from 100,000 people before the policy began and the country has one of Europe's lowest drug mortality rates. The number of people with HIV also dropped, from 1,001 new cases in 2001 to 56 cases in 2012. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)