A Response to Media Coverage of the ACT’s Drug Decriminalisation Anniversary
On 27 October 2025, the ABC published an article marking two years since ACT drug decriminalisation made the Australian Capital Territory the first Australian jurisdiction to remove criminal penalties for small amounts of illicit drugs. The piece featured advocates celebrating “meaningful harm reduction” and government officials claiming community support for treating drug use as a health issue. Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith stated the government was hearing from “the vast majority of the community” that they wanted drug use treated as a health issue, not a criminal one. Pill Testing Australia’s David Caldicott dismissed concerning statistics as “misconstruing correlation and causation.”
What the article downplayed, burying critical opposition voices and alarming data in the latter portions, was the stark reality: ACT drug decriminalisation is failing by nearly every measurable metric.
The ACT Reality: Two Years of Deterioration
Since ACT drug decriminalisation was implemented in October 2023, the Australian Capital Territory has recorded:
- Cocaine use up approximately 70%
- Heroin use up 30%
- Methamphetamine use up 40%
- 16 suspected overdose deaths in 2025 alone
- More than 1,100 drug-related emergency presentations in 2024-25
- Drug-driving charges up more than 20%
Australian Federal Police Association president Alex Caruana stated bluntly: “The statistics are indicating that the ACT is now nation-leading when it comes to non-fatal overdoses. And our members have to be out there dealing with those non-fatal overdoses all the time… I think decriminalisation on the whole is something that hasn’t worked, and the data is indicating that very, very, very plainly it hasn’t worked.”
Yet media coverage continues to present ACT drug decriminalisation as a success story, echoing narratives built on selective statistics and misrepresented outcomes from Portugal’s controversial policy shift more than two decades ago.
The Portugal Fallacy: Two Decades of Misrepresented Data
The foundation of the pro-decriminalisation movement, and the justification for ACT drug decriminalisation, rests heavily on a 2009 report commissioned by the libertarian Cato Institute and funded by the Marijuana Policy Project. This report, written by lawyer Glenn Greenwald after just three weeks in Portugal, has been cited thousands of times as definitive proof that decriminalisation works. Yet multiple independent analyses, including evaluations by the Obama White House Drug Control Policy office and Portuguese medical professionals, have exposed fundamental flaws in its methodology and conclusions.
Drug Use: The Inconvenient Truth
Contrary to claims of declining drug use, Portugal has experienced alarming increases across nearly every category since decriminalisation.
Overall Drug Consumption:
- Between 2001 and 2007, overall drug consumption increased by 4.2% in absolute terms
- Lifetime drug experimentation climbed from 7.8% to 12%
- By 2017, drug use amongst those aged 15-64 was 59% higher than in 2001, a trend that would be considered catastrophic in any objective policy evaluation
Specific Substances (2001-2007):
- Cannabis use amongst 15-34 year-olds jumped from 12.4% to 17%
- Cocaine use more than doubled from 1.3% to 2.8%
- Ecstasy use nearly doubled from 1.4% to 2.6%
- Heroin use increased from 0.7% to 1.1%
Youth Drug Use: A Growing Crisis Amongst secondary school students, the age group society should most protect, drug use in 2011 was 36% higher than in 2001 and 76% higher than in 2006. These are not the markers of policy success.
The National Survey on the Use of Psychoactive Substances in the General Population, Portugal 2016/17, reported: “We have seen a rise in the prevalence of alcohol and tobacco consumption and of every illicit psychoactive substance between 2012-2016/17.”
The Death Toll: Rising Despite Claims Otherwise
Perhaps the most misleading aspect of the decriminalisation narrative concerns drug-related deaths. While the Cato report celebrated declining death rates, the complete picture tells a different story.
Drug-induced deaths did decrease initially from 369 in 1999 to 152 in 2003. However:
- By 2007, deaths had climbed to 314, significantly higher than the 280 deaths recorded when decriminalisation began in 2001
- By 2008, the figure reached 338 deaths
- Using data from Portugal’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, which employs more comprehensive testing methods, the toll represents roughly one death per day
Critically, the Obama White House analysis noted that roughly half of the decrease in heroin-related deaths occurred before decriminalisation was implemented, suggesting other factors were at play that had nothing to do with the policy change.
HIV/AIDS Crisis Amongst Drug Users
Portugal now holds the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of HIV/AIDS amongst injecting drug users in the European Union:
- 85 new cases per million citizens in 2005, eight times the EU average
- The number of new HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C cases amongst Portuguese drug users is eight times the average found in other EU member states
- Portugal remains the only EU country recording a recent increase in injecting drug-related AIDS cases
- In 2005, Portugal recorded 703 newly diagnosed infections, followed at a distance by Estonia with 191 and Latvia with 108, a shameful 268% aggravation from the next worst case
This stands in stark contrast to the narrative of improved public health outcomes.
The Cocaine Crisis and Drug Trafficking
While advocates claim decriminalisation reduces drug trafficking, the evidence shows the opposite:
- Cocaine seizures in Portugal increased sevenfold between 2001 and 2006
- The country was rated the sixth highest globally for cocaine confiscations
- In 2006, Portugal was responsible for 35% of all cocaine seizures in Europe
- Drug-related homicides increased by 40% following decriminalisation, making Portugal the only European country with a significant increase in drug-related murders between 2001 and 2006
Public Perception: Citizens Report Growing Problems
Portuguese citizens themselves report growing concerns. A 2007 survey by the Centre for Studies and Opinion Polls at Portuguese Catholic University found:
- 83.7% believed drug use had increased in the previous four years
- 66.8% reported drugs were easily accessible in their neighbourhoods
- 77.3% stated that drug-related crime had risen
The Drug Tourism Reality
The Cato report claimed drug tourism fears were unfounded, yet evidence from travellers and locals tells a different story. One 2015 visitor recounted: “Don’t go to Lisbon. I have just returned from a weekend in Lisbon. Consistent harassment from people selling drugs. I was approached 30-40 times over the weekend. Sitting outside drinking a coffee at lunchtime, must have been approached 5-6 times in one hour.”
Another account stated: “In the most touristy area of Lisbon, around the Praça do Comércio, the police tolerate drug dealers in Lisbon. That’s right. We walked past a man on the street who offered us marijuana whilst there was a police man standing only two metres from us. Nothing happened.”
The Medicinalisation Trap: Dependency Dressed as Treatment
A central pillar of Portugal’s approach has been the massive expansion of opioid substitution programmes, primarily methadone maintenance. By 2008, approximately 70% of Portuguese heroin users were enrolled in substitution programmes, representing roughly half of all problem opioid users in Europe.
While advocates present this as evidence of treatment success, critics raise profound questions about whether maintaining drug dependency through government-supplied opiates constitutes genuine treatment or merely a form of chemical social control. The European Monitoring Centre acknowledges that “questions are being asked about the long-term outcomes of those in care,” as many patients remain on methadone indefinitely with no path to abstinence.
One EMCDDA official noted: “Now that the epidemic is under control for the most part, people start asking questions. The question now is what is going to happen next? There is a part of the population who do not have the possibility of leaving the treatment.”
A New Yorker article captured the troubling reality of a Portuguese methadone patient: “I guess I should try to overcome my addiction. I know I should. But I’m not sure I can, and it isn’t really necessary. I am lucky to live in a society that has accepted the fact that drugs and addiction are part of life.”
Oregon’s Reversal: When Reality Overtakes Ideology
Perhaps the most telling development occurred in 2024 when Oregon, which had implemented the most comprehensive drug decriminalisation measure in United States history in 2020, reversed course after devastating outcomes. State lawmakers repealed the decriminalisation laws, citing an overwhelmed health system and sharply rising drug-related crime.
Oregon’s experience demonstrated that decriminalisation, even when coupled with expanded treatment funding, cannot address the fundamental problems of drug addiction and trafficking. The swift reversal should serve as a warning to jurisdictions like the ACT that are only beginning to experience the full consequences of decriminalisation policies.
Conclusion: Confronting the Data
The media narrative around ACT drug decriminalisation relies on selective statistics, misleading timeframes, and anecdotal testimony that obscures measurable outcomes. When advocates dismiss dramatic increases in drug use, overdoses, and drug-related crime as “misconstruing correlation and causation,” they are asking us to ignore the evidence before our eyes.
The ACT’s experience after just two years mirrors Portugal’s longer trajectory: increased drug use across all categories, rising overdoses, growing public safety concerns, and a health system struggling to cope with the consequences. The Australian Federal Police Association’s assessment is blunt but accurate: “The data is indicating that very, very, very plainly it hasn’t worked.”
As jurisdictions worldwide reconsider decriminalisation policies, from Oregon’s outright reversal to growing concerns in Portugal itself, the question surrounding ACT drug decriminalisation is no longer whether it works. The data has answered that clearly. The question is whether policymakers and media will continue to prioritize ideology over evidence, and rhetoric over reality.
Sources:
https://www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au/index.php/resources/drug-information-sheets
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