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As marijuana legalization approaches, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have united in their call for Ottawa to decriminalize all hard drugs. They join a growing chorus of activists and health agencies, including the Canadian Public Health Association.

Among this pro-decriminalization camp, there is one word that is mentioned constantly: Portugal, the country that pioneered across-the-board drug decriminalization in 2001.

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So what does life look like in Portugal, the new poster boy for global drug reform? Below, a quick guide to what decriminalization has done for Portugal, and what it hasn’t.

The Portuguese black market remains, drug traffickers are still jailed

Portugal has not legalized drugs. Far from it. In fact, selling marijuana, a soon-to-be-legal activity in Canada, can still result in a lengthy term in a Portuguese jail. When the country decriminalized drug possession in 2001, it only did so for drugs intended for “individual consumption.” Anyone caught with more than a 10 days’ supply of drugs is still regarded as a trafficker and criminally prosecuted. In 2010, roughly one fifth of the country’s prison population was put there by a trafficking conviction. Portugal also has a blanket ban on the cultivation of drugs, even if it’s merely a personal cannabis plant. “A drug consumer must necessarily rely on the illicit market to obtain drugs,” noted a 2015 report in the journal Law & Social Inquiry. The country has also lagged considerably behind much of the western world in approving medical marijuana. It was only a few months ago, in fact, that Portugal passed its first-ever bill authorizing cannabis for medical use.