The idea of providing individuals who use substances with a safe space to do so might sound radical, but globally, the United States is behind the curve of evidence-based addiction solutions. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001, after nearly 1 percent of its population had become addicted to heroin. Now, Portugal loses only 5.8 per one million adult citizens annually to overdoses, compared with America's nearly 200. Several other countries, including Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands, provide a prescription for medical-grade heroin to individuals for whom other treatments have failed.