Psychedelic Retreats in Portugal

History of Psychedelics in Portugal

The history of using psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), DMT, and mescaline in Portugal is less well-documented than in countries like Mexico, Peru or Costa Rica.

Legal Status of Psychedelics in Portugal

Since 2001, Portugal has been at the forefront of drug decriminalization, as all drugs have been decriminalized, even those viewed as potentially harmful. Drug decriminalization was an intentional policy decision made by the Portuguese government as the country faced an epidemic of drug use and diseases like HIV, with statistics demonstrating that punishing people for using drugs was a resource-intensive strategy taking up too much time for the police and the courts. The country changed its approach, deciding to treat drug use as a health issue, and instead of drug users, offer them treatment.

Preliminary sociological and epidemiological research indicates that the policy change has had the following impact:

• Increased drug addiction treatment rates.
• Reduction in new HIV diagnoses amongst drug users by 17% and a general drop of 90% in drug-related HIV infection.
• Declining drug use rates among adolescents (13-15 yrs)
• Decreased drug-related criminal justice workloads
• The street value of most illicit drugs fell substantially
• The estimated social cost of drug use decreased by 12% to 18%

Despite drugs being decriminalized, they’re not legal in Portugal. While the police in Portugal usually won’t cause trouble for people using drugs like LSD or mushrooms casually, selling certain drugs is still against the law. So please don’t go to Portugal expecting to walk into a store and buy them like you would a pack of cigarettes. Decriminalization allows for the possession of drugs below a certain amount; the amounts depend on the type of drug.

If you carry over the legal amount of a specific drug, you could face criminal persecution. The legal amount will vary by drug.