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Fortunately, the former family doctor is infinitely patient, as he’s been answering the same questions for almost 20 years.

In the late 1990s, Goulão and 10 others were charged with advising the government how to deal with the 100,000 people — one in every 100 citizens — using heroin. Overdose deaths were averaging 360 a year in the country of 10 million and Lisbon was called the junkie capital of Europe.

Goulão was an unusual choice. He had no training in addictions and, rare among Portuguese, no direct connection with addictions. The closest family connection he has to drugs is a niece, who is in her 40s and living in a therapeutic community with schizophrenia caused by drug use.

As for his four children, “Hopefully, none of them will have problems.”

Because of its interventions, Portugal now has one of Europe’s lowest rates of drug, alcohol and tobacco use across all ages, and the lowest infection rates for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis that are associated with injection drug use. In 2016, the number of overdose deaths dropped to 26 from 40 the previous year.

The only thing that most outsiders know about Portugal’s laws is that all drugs for personal use are decriminalized. But what most fail to understand is that all drugs, other than alcohol and tobacco, remain illegal.

If police find you with illicit drugs, you’ll be arrested and taken to a police station where the drugs will be weighed. If the amount is above the strictly enforced threshold limits — designed to be a 10-day supply for personal use, or 25 grams of cannabis, five grams of cannabis resin, two grams of cocaine, or one gram each of ecstasy or heroin — you can be charged as a trafficker. If convicted, jail terms range from one year to 14 years.