KSKaryn Sporer

1. Article · Sep 14, 2026 · Karyn Sporer, University of Maine and Robert Glover, University of Maine

   Portugal decriminalized drugs 25 years ago, but the real lesson is what it built around this policy (opens the original)

   Excerpt · Critical tone · English

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   Nearly 70,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2025. While that is a decline from the nearly 108,000 deaths recorded in 2022, these grim figures distinguish the U.S. from other high-income countries. At the peak of the opioid crisis, the U.S. overdose death rate was 68% higher than Canada’s and nearly five times that of Australia. And death is only the starkest indicator: Substance use disorder imposes hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare, criminal justice and lost productivity co

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