Relapsed heroin users in Portugal have trebled in the last three years due mainly to the crisis the country is going through, according to a member of the General-Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD).
The numbers show that 2,881 heroin addicts had entered into addiction treatment in 2012, as opposed to 1,008 in 2010.
However, in the first six months of this year, 856 cases have been registered, which may mean a decrease in the number of users after three years of negative results.
The relapse cases are people who were on recovery programmes and had started to get their lives back on track, but due to the current crisis saw themselves losing their jobs and returned to their addictive habits.
According to Manuel Cardoso, the sub-director of SICAD, relapsed alcohol and cocaine users have also trebled in the last three years but on a much smaller scale, affecting hundreds of people instead of thousands.
