Business of Cannabis reports
The Portuguese parliament has approved some changes to Ordinance 94/96 of March 26, better known as ‘the drugs law’. The new law broadens the scope of personal consumption, and no longer considers possession of more than the quantity allowed for consumption over 10 days as evidence of trafficking. This means that, from now on, police who seize substances from a consumer will have to prove that they were intended for the illicit market, and not for personal consumption, before charging them with ‘drug trafficking’.
The Portuguese government this week approved the final text of the new drugs law, the result of a bill submitted to parliament in March by a group of mainly Social Democratic Party (PSD) MPs. It was approved by parliament after some criticism from the Judicial Police and the PSD itself.
However, the final version of the text, after a long passage through the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, was the result of a joint debate over both the Social Democratic bill and a bill submitted in June by the Socialist Party (PS).
The draft law initially submitted by the PSDs aimed to correct the already outdated name of the authority responsible for updating the upper limits for individual daily doses.
However, the passage through the parliamentary committee and the draft law proposed by the PS resulted in a final text which, in addition to updating the body’s name, stipulated that possession of a quantity greater than 10 days’ supply was an indication that the purpose might not be self-consumption.
Read more at
https://businessofcannabis.com/portugal-moves-to-broaden-scope-of-drug-decriminalisation/
Sean Hocking
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