Benzene -
Yes it is ported. The porting helps reduce the recoil when shooting magnum loads. That's the good part.
The bad part is in low light conditions you are going to see more muzzle flash due to the porting. I don't know if that would blind you any faster than the muzzle flash from a non-ported barrel or not, I've never tried to test it. The other common complaint you will hear about ported barrels is that if you fire it from a pocket (like from within a coat pocket), the result is catching the garment on fire. I don't think the fire would concern me if the situation was bad enough to shoot.
I have two other Taurus snubbies, an older M85 (pre +p) and an 851 BUL. The 851 is a 38 +p that is also ported. It only weighs about 17 ounces. I like to carry it in a Bianchi IWB, or a Don Hume JIT slide. It is a good shooter, and actually fits my hand better than the 617.
I'm really not partial to porting, one way or the other. If you plan on shooting magnum loads a lot it makes the weapon less punishing to shoot. If you think you'll shoot just +p or standard 38 loads you probably won't need it. For awhile it was hard to find Taurus snubbies without it.