João Augusto Castel-Branco Goulão ComIH (born 6 May 1954 in

Cernache do Bonjardim Cernache do Bonjardim is a former civil parish in the municipality of Sertã, central Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Cernache do Bonjardim, Nesperal e Palhais. The population in 2011 was 3,052, in an area of 71.59 km2 ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

) is a Portuguese physician and the current national drug coordinator for Portugal. He is credited as being an architect of Portugal's drug policy established in 2000. From 2009 to 2015, he served as chairman of the

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), known until 2024 as the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, and established in 1993. In June 2022, the ...

(EMCDDA) and has been a delegate at the

United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is one of the functional commissions of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and is the central drug policy-making body within the United Nations System. The CND also has important ma ...

Medical career

Goulão attended the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

from 1971 to 1978, graduating from the university's Faculty of Medicine. After an internship and residency, he became a general practitioner in 1983. Beginning in 1987, he started specialising in treatment of drug addicts. From 1988 to 1992, he worked at the Taipas Centre in Lisbon, established in 1987 by the Portuguese Ministry of Health "for the treatment, recovery and social reintegration of drug addicts." In 1997, he became the national director of the network of drug treatment centres in Portugal. In 1998, Goulão was a member of the 11-person committee that formed the report on which Portugal's current drug policy of decriminalisation was based. " he committeeindicated directions in which to move with respect to policies of prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social reinsertion. One of our premises is that drug abusers are ill, not criminals, and that they need help," he said.

Appointments

From 1997 to 2002, Goulão served on the scientific committee for the

(EMCDDA), an agency of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. Since 2005, he has been Portugal's representative at the agency. He served two terms as chairman of the board for EMCDDA (2009–2011 and 2012–2015). Since 2005, Goulão has been head of the General-Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (''Serviço de Intervenção nos Comportamentos Adictícios e nas Dependências'') (SICAD), within Portugal's Ministry of Health. He is also chairman of Portugal's Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction (''Instituto da Droga e da Toxicodependência'') (IDT).

Award and Honours

PRT Order of Prince Henry - Commander BAR

Commander of the Order of Prince Henry by Portuguese President

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th President of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. Sampaio was a member of the Socialist Party, a party which he ...

, 2006 * Municipality of Faro, Silver Medal for Merit, 2011 *

Drug Policy Alliance The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is a New York City–based nonprofit organization that seeks to advance policies that "reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodi ...

, Norman E. Zinberg Award for Achievement in the Field of Medicine, 2013

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goulao, Joao Castel-Branco People from Lisbon People from Sertã Living people 1954 births Portuguese civil servants Portuguese general practitioners 20th-century Portuguese physicians 21st-century Portuguese physicians Commanders of the Order of Prince Henry Drug policy reform activists University of Lisbon alumni