Pointers from Portugal on Addiction and the Drug War

The food is soooo sweet, sugar, sugar and sugar everywhere.

Other places like Salzburg are different in so many ways. Viena has always been a political, bureaucracy center.

Cafeterias in Viena are political institutions, you can imagine Freud or Lenin or Stalin, Stefan Sweig, Carl Jung, Hitler, Marx, Goethe, just there, because they went there.

It seems like these problems are not directly caused by the drug, but by the fact users cannot buy clean medical grade with a safe method of administration. Portugal model doesn't seem to address that, but only makes consumption slightly more "comfortable" to the users.

I'd also add that there is still a Heroin problem, albeit diminished. It is not unusual to see someone walking though the local village, out-of-their head drunk at 9am on a Wednesday. It isn't alcohol though, it's Heroin. But it is also an economically poor area. The weather is amazing and the place is gorgeous, but for someone raised here who doesn't manage to escape it can also be a trap. Many of the older people work in the fields in the morning, the in the late afternoon they meet in the cafes and chat about village life. Coffee is $0.15, a beer is $0.7. There a very few younger people. Those that can leave have left for a city. The ones who remain are that ones who were not able to leave. I spoke with the local President last week and he himself said that the area has become a skills desert.

So yes, I think the route to Heroin addition looks something like this. Get financially stuck in the local area. Get a bad reputation for being lazy. Try to become YouTube/Insta famous. Give up. Turn on those that tried to help. Drink & smoke weed as an escape. When those stop working try Heroin. I know a couple of people in my village that are on this path right now.

There is some crime here. It seems to fall into two categories. First is petty crime where something goes missing that's worth about $100. That's enough to quickly sell for immediate cash (likely for some form of drug). This has happened to me twice, and I don't really mind.

There is more 'organised' crime where a place gets methodically burgled when someone is away. I know people this has happened to.

There is a rapidly growing contingent of foreigners here now, and we're mostly accepted. Economically, I get the impression that most businesses prefer to deal with the foreigners. Even the guy that sells firewood says that 95% of his customers are now foreigners, and that he prefers it that way. There are lots more foreigners arriving too (leaving cities due to covid, basically), very few Portuguese people being added. Most people in my village are over 60. It'll be interesting to see how the demographics play out over the coming years.

Anyway, maybe that is of some interest. The region of Portugal I am in is Castelo Branco. I'm starting an ISP here too: https://gardunha.net

Also, does anyone remember the name of the doctor that started this whole movement? I think the first name is João, but I can't remember or find it. I might be tripping, pun intended.