Dissuasion is a global and integrated intervention strategy, going beyond the mere application of the 
Law.
It establishes a strong potential in terms of reducing the consumption of psychoactive substances and dependencies with most people who experience dissuasion engaging with the services and available responses for the first time. Dissuasion is implemented and mobilized through a set of partners for a complementary approach that involves security and public order and with the early detection of risk situations, in which a timely intervention can make a difference. It also incorporates a widespread intervention in the field of prevention, the promotion of local responses and Community intervention, thus contributing to gains in health and safety.
Inseparable from other types of intervention that are part of the recognized Portuguese model, the dissuasion operates in a network of articulated responses, working for the reduction in the consumption of psychoactive substances and dependencies, the health protection of users and populations and for the prevention of social exclusion.
The cooperation is distinguished as a core value in the intervention recommended by the Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction (CDT). These services, which operate under the decriminalisation law, have a national scope, being the coordination in conjunction with the other internal or external services outside the SICAD, in the area of dissuasion, performed by the Ministry of Health.
The CDT welcome the indicted (users of illicit psychoactive substances) sent by the security forces, and carries out an exhaustive assessment of their situation with regard to consumption and the administrative offence proceedings against the individual, always valuing their psychosocial needs, without ever neglecting the reason why they were created: the urgency to bring consumers of illicit substances to the health area facilities.