What would change if marijuana is decriminalized in Brazil

Legalization

Minister Alexandre de Moraes was the last to vote in favor of decriminalization forming a score of 4 to 0 in the STF

Brasilia DF) – Minister Alexandre de Moraes voted in favor of the decriminalization of marijuana for personal use, with a speech that the Drug Law of 2006 caused an increase in incarceration and strengthened criminal factions, forming a score of 4 to 0 in the Federal Supreme Court ( STF) on the subject. In Em Tempo, political scientist Helso Ribeiro comments on details and how this change can affect the Brazilian population.

After the minister’s vote, the judgment was suspended by the rapporteur, Minister Gilmar Mendes, who should release the issue again to return to the agenda in the coming weeks. Helso Ribeiro even believes that at least 8 of the 11 ministers will give a favorable opinion to the decision.

“I think that eight of the eleven ministers will vote for this direction that is following to decriminalize marijuana”

declared Helso Ribeiro.

If the Supreme Court decides to decriminalize the possession of marijuana for personal use, people convicted of trafficking with amounts of the drug within the new defined parameters may have their sentences reviewed. In proven cases where the person was just a user, these police and judicial records must be ‘clean’, removing the criminal record. This change can impact the lives of these people when looking for a job, for example.

A recent survey by the Institute for Economic and Applied Research (Ipea) with more than 5,000 criminal cases in courts of law in the country pointed out that, if quantitative criteria were adopted to define personal use (up to 25 grams of marijuana and 10 grams of cocaine), about 30% of the defendants would have been presumed users .

Decriminalize versus legalize

In the STF, the object of discussion is the decriminalization of possession for personal consumption of marijuana, not the legalization of the sale of the drug. Helso Ribeiro declares that legalization will not turn the country into a ‘pothead society’.

“I understand that if it is approved, as I believe it will be approved, I just don’t know the limit they will approve, I think that Brazil will start to treat this subject in a non-hypocritical way. just take the twenty countries with the best human development index on the planet and you will see that almost all of them don’t put anyone behind the cage for carrying a small amount of marijuana for me to use, whatever it is. So, I think that if approved, it will not transform Brazil into a ‘society of potheads’, it will just be something that, in practice, is very much practiced by society”

said the political scientist.

When there is decriminalization, the conduct does not automatically become within the law, but is no longer treated as a crime, that is, no one can be arrested for it. It may still be subject to administrative sanction or not, depending on the case.

On the other hand, legalization is when something becomes law and becomes regulated. For this, action by the Legislative Power is required.

Judgment

Moraes was the fourth to vote in this process, which had been stalled since 2015. He accompanied Edson Fachin and Luís Roberto Barroso, who also advocate that marijuana be treated differently from that of other substances in the law.

“Whatever this Supreme Court decides (…), the most important thing, it seems to me, is to demand that the law be applied to everyone identically”

declared Minister Alexandre de Moraes, during the reading of the vote.

The rapporteur for the case, Gilmar Mendes, voted that year to decriminalize the possession of any drug for personal use. The votes of André Mendonça, Nunes Marques, Cármen Lúcia, Luiz Fux, Dias Toffoli, and the president of the Court, Rosa Weber, are missing, in addition to the new minister Cristiano Zanin, who takes office tomorrow.

The ministers of the STF analyze an article of the Drug Law that configures possession for personal consumption as a crime. Depending on the decision of the collegiate, this section of the law may be declared unconstitutional.

When voting, Moraes made a caveat and for him a person caught with marijuana can be arrested even if the amount is small, as long as other elements in the act indicate that it is dealing with trafficking, not personal consumption. For the minister, people caught with small amounts of drugs have been framed as users or dealers depending on racial, social and age group criteria.

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