In an area of waste ground in the north of Lisbon, a man is waiting for a fresh supply of clean needles.

Used needles, tin foil and alcohol wipes litter the ground. Paths connect makeshift shelters dotted all around in a community that has developed within a neighbourhood.

Behind old sheets and discarded furniture, these shelters are where people come to get their fix.

Nearby a woman is injecting heroin on top of a hill under the baking heat of the afternoon sun.

We are here with two workers from Crescer, an intervention organisation that provides medical and practical support in areas like this.

They are at the frontline of this country's radical approach of decriminalising all drugs for personal use, and making healthcare the focus of drug policy.

Alex began taking drugs at just 15, having lost his parents and being put into care.

Waiting for the needles from the Crescer workers, he says that decriminalisation is better.

He tells us he doesn't have to hide himself. He knows where to go for treatment, whereas before there was no control over what he did.

He is waiting for a vacancy for treatment for his addiction to heroin and cocaine.

He has tried and failed three times to quit. Motivation is harder to come by each time, he says.

But he is determined to leave this life behind and begin working again as a chef.

It's clear 18 years of drug decriminalisation has not eradicated the problems here. There is an acceptance addiction will be around for a long time, if not forever.

But Portugal's drug death rate has plummeted and more people have entered treatment programmes.

It is a policy born out of the need to tackle a public health crisis. It has required a massive cultural as well as political shift, but it is producing results.

More than 1100 drug-related deaths were recorded in Scotland last year, it was revealed this week, with the total more than doubling in a decade.

That has prompted widespread calls for bold action in a bid to reverse the trend, such as decriminalisation.

Little wonder politicians are here to see if there are any lessons that can be applied back home.