By majority vote, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided on Tuesday (25) to decriminalize the possession of marijuana for personal use. The trial concluded after nine years of successive suspensions. The number of judges who voted for and against decriminalization has not yet been officially released.
With the decision, possession of marijuana continues as an illicit behavior, that is, smoking the drug in public remains prohibited, but the punishments defined against users become administrative in nature, not criminal.
The Court has not yet defined the amount of marijuana that should characterize personal use and differentiate between users and drug dealers. According to the votes already given, the measure must be between 25 and 60 grams or six female cannabis plants.
To differentiate users and traffickers, the rule provides for alternative penalties such as providing services to the community, warning about the effects of drugs and mandatory attendance at an educational course.
The law no longer provided for a prison sentence, but maintained criminalization. Thus, drug users are still targets of police investigations and legal proceedings seeking to enforce alternative sentences.
The majority of ministers decided to maintain the validity of the law, but understood that the punishments provided for users should not be criminal in nature.
It’s not legalization
During the session, the President of the Supreme Court, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, highlighted that the Court is not deciding on the legalization of marijuana and that consumption remains an illicit conduct.
“At no point are we legalizing or saying that drug consumption is a positive thing. On the contrary, we are just deliberating the best way to face this epidemic that exists in Brazil and that the strategies we have adopted are not working because consumption only increases the power of trafficking as well”, he stated.
Source: Agência Brasil
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