Does Portugal Move Drug Users from One Mess to Another?

So, those favoring legalization of drugs point to Portugal, noting that since many penalties were lifted, drug use is down.

I confess I drove to work today thinking, Well, if decriminalization brought such clear success in Portugal in the war against drugs, then perhaps one of our states should, indeed, try it.

Then I came home and found a Wikipedia article that made me wonder if all the claims are not an oversimplication of what is going on in Portugal. In 2006, Portugal authorities confiscated a record amount of cocaine. A regular increase in cannabis resin seized has also been witnessed in recent years, although it has declined for the years 2008 and 2009.

Furthermore, Portugal has a substitution treatment program, which gets people onto such things as methadone. Moving the populace from "hard drugs" to those you don't consider "hard" deserves some scrutiny before concluding the program is a success. There are some legal drugs in the U.S. that have many harmful effects. Do we say a program is a success simply because it moves people from one mess to another?
 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Portugal