In the grip of a drugs crisis, the country took a radical approach in 2001 and became the first country in the world to decriminalise all drugs for personal use. Drug abuse and addiction began to be seen as a public health issue, not a criminal offence. Initial resistance to the policy faded after statistics proved that treatment, rather than punishment, was reducing the number of deaths caused by drugs in Portugal. Dr João Castel-Branco Goulão was one of the chief architects of the shift in policy. He's been explaining to Rebecca Kesby why Portugal had such a pronounced drug problem to begin with and how the shift in strategy helped to reduce it.

(Photo: A patient receives syringes having taken his daily dose of 85 milligrams of methadone as part of Portugal's radical turn from 2001 decriminalising drug use and placing emphasis on treating drug addiction with a public health approach. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)