{"id":35228,"date":"2022-08-27T21:45:39","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T21:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/27\/as-the-act-prepares-to-decriminalise-most-drugs-experiences-from-portugal-and-oregon-offer-contrasting-lessons\/"},"modified":"2022-08-27T21:45:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T21:45:39","slug":"as-the-act-prepares-to-decriminalise-most-drugs-experiences-from-portugal-and-oregon-offer-contrasting-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/27\/as-the-act-prepares-to-decriminalise-most-drugs-experiences-from-portugal-and-oregon-offer-contrasting-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"As the ACT prepares to decriminalise most drugs, experiences from Portugal and Oregon offer contrasting lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At his lowest point, Richard Duckett was spending $300 a day on his addiction.<\/p>\n

“People don’t go and use drugs because they’re thinking ‘screw society, I don’t care, I’m going to do what I want’,” he said.<\/p>\n

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“People use drugs to kill the pain.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For Mr Duckett, that pain stemmed from a traumatic childhood event, which put him on the path to addiction.<\/p>\n

“I’ve smoked pot pretty much ever since I was 14 until a year or so ago. So pot’s part of my staple diet. But heroin would be my drug of choice,” he says.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been using [heroin] on and off since I was 18, and I’m 55 now.”<\/p>\n

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