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Drug shoppers line up outdoor of the SAOM van for a methadone cocktail and provides within the town 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 against the law.
Picture via Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit /Getty Photographs
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Picture via Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit /Getty Photographs
Drug shoppers line up outdoor of the SAOM van for a methadone cocktail and provides within the town 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 against the law.
Picture via Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Submit /Getty Photographs
Brian Mann covers the U-S opioid and fentanyl disaster for NPR. That suggests he talks to numerous folks suffering with dependancy. Over and over again, he is heard tales of people that have succumbed to their dependancy — final 12 months 112, 000 — greater than ever in historical past.
But if Mann traveled to Portugal to document on that nation’s fashion for coping with the opioid disaster, he heard an overly other tale. Overdose deaths in Portugal are extraordinarily uncommon.
The rustic has taken a radically other option to medicine – decriminalizing small quantities and publicly investment dependancy services and products – together with websites the place folks can use medicine like crack and heroin.
Portugal treats dependancy as an sickness moderately than against the law. Nobody has to pay for dependancy care, and no person scrambles to navigate a poorly regulated restoration gadget. May just Portugal’s way lend a hand the U-S combat its opioid epidemic?
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This episode used to be produced via Connor Donevan and Megan Lim. It used to be edited via Courtney Dorning and Andrea DeLeon.
Our government manufacturer is Sami Yenigun.
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