Once a model, crisis imperils Portugal’s drug program

LISBON (Reuters) – Sergio Alves had been off heroin for a year – a tough year to stay clean in Portugal, as the debt-laden country weathered more painful austerity measures after an international bailout and sunk into its worst recession since the 1970s. As tax hikes gnawed into the grocery business he runs with his wife and the stress mounted, Alves relapsed. Now back in rehab, the 30-year-old is glad he can fall back on the free state-run centre for drug addicts, where he says few signs of austerity are visible yet. "The business was bad, my life became just the work-home routine. …