Mr. António Manuel Leitão da Silva:

In the experience of Portugal, however, we did not have increased levels of trafficking after we decriminalised. Of course, we are now facing a strong wave of drugs from outside of Europe, and specifically in Porto, but our experience does not reflect an increased number of drug users after decriminalisation. It is a challenge for the police to put more effort into combating trafficking because otherwise, as the Deputy mentioned, it will be tempting for drug dealers to supply the market with more drugs. If the police take the right action, however, and treat drug users properly, the number of consumers will decrease, meaning the demand will decrease, which is why we have had good outcomes, especially until 2012.