Check!n

Lissabon (PT)

Lecture:
Setting up a new Drug Checking Service in Portugal – challenges, pre-conditions and valuable experiences
(Ellero Jacopo, Berkowicz Katarzyna, Pereira Joana)

Portugal’s drug policy is among the most advanced worldwide. Following decriminaliza-tion (2001), the use and possession of small amounts of psychoactive substances are not a criminal offense anymore; instead they are a public health concern. Decriminalization has given spectacular results and significantly decreased the number of problematic us-ers of injectable substances such as heroin. Unfortunately, less attention has been given to recreational consumption. Although Drug Checking is provided by law, Portugal still lacks permanent funding of facilities available to the users. The leading harm reduction organization Check!n (APDES) has for years provided this service on specific events such as Boom! and NEOPOP Festival, and runs a DC lab in the town of Viseu. The first DC in Lisbon was implemented by Check!n in March 2018, at Lisboa Dance Festival, as the first step in setting up a permanent laboratory in collaboration with the Municipality of Lisbon. After launching a public petition demanding a permanent governmental found-ing for DC, Check!n is currently in a phase of searching for the adequate space in Lisbon. Current challenges in implementation, besides funding, include mainly collection and transportation of the samples and framing of the service with police enforcement, crimi-nal law and other issues.