In the month of July, the Constitutional Court of Portugal had given the green light to the law that decriminalized the consumption of synthetic drugs, despite the doubts raised by the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. At that time, the president did not enact said law while waiting for the Constitutional Court to rule, alleging that the authorities had not been consulted. Madeira and of the Azores islands before adopting a reform that starts from two projects promoted from the Socialist Party (PS) and from the opponent Social Democratic Party (PSD).
That is why the head of state stated that the “new types of drugs have a special incidence in these two regions and points out that the local authorities will be key to applying the reform, but the court has unanimously understood that it is not about a subject on which the regional administrations must decide in advance”, according to the Lusa news agency.
However, despite the questions, the President of Portugal promulgated last Thursday the law that decriminalizes the consumption of synthetic drugs, after the Constitutional Court endorsed its legality after the consultation that the Head of State himself expressly transferred to him. The drug reform equates the new substances to the classic ones, in such a way that possession intended for consumption is no longer considered a crime, without any criteria related to the number of doses.
The objective is to differentiate between traffickers and users so that they can receive treatment, at a time when psychiatric hospitalizations linked to the use of synthetic drugs have increased, especially in the Madeira and Azores archipelagos. This approach had already been applied to classic drugs since 2000, with a policy based on prioritizing public health.
Until now, the law established that possession of up to ten doses was not considered trafficking and could not be punished, but the Socialists went further and eliminated the quantity criteria. From now on, the quantity of drugs will only be an “indication” and not a condemnatory criterion, so that judges can more freely evaluate the situation in order to determine if a person is a trafficker or just a consumer.
“Someone found with 15 doses, because they live in the interior of the country and go to an urban center to buy the drug for their own consumption cheaper, cannot automatically be treated as a criminal and sentenced to a sentence,” explained the socialist deputy Claudia Santos. On the other hand, several members of the Executive asked legislators for “prudence” and insisted that the law must allow a clear distinction between consumers and traffickers.
“It is convenient not to increase the difficulties that the police and judicial entities have in the field to be able to do what they must do,” said the Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro. Finally, the head of Internal Administration, Jose Luis Carneirowarned that “there must be a very great weighting” so that there is a “good application of the law by the security forces.”
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