The Supreme Court of Brazil formed a majority this Tuesday in favor of decriminalizing the possession, cultivation and consumption of marijuana for personal use, so that this is considered only as an illicit act without a criminal nature.
According to the criteria of
Magistrate José Antonio Dias Toffoli interpreted that the current law does not criminalize the user, so six of the eleven members of the court have already ruled along those lines, compared to the three who have done so in the opposite direction and with two remaining. They still have to give their opinion.
The user should not be criminalized, he should be treated with public health and socio-educational policies
“The user should not be criminalized, he should be treated with public health and socio-educational policies,” he stated, in reference to the 2006 anti-drug law that had already decriminalized consumption, so since then those convicted did not go to jail and They only faced minor punishments such as community service.
Furthermore, Toffoli pointed to the “stigma” associated with criminalization, which can discourage users from asking for the help they need.
In the face of criticism leveled for months by right-wing legislators, Toffoli clarified that decriminalization does not equal legalization, a measure that must be decided by Congress.
The majority of the magistrates who have spoken so far have agreed on the need to set a quantity of marijuana to distinguish the user from the trafficker, because the current law does not establish it.
The absence of a limit opens the doors to interpretations by the police, which according to the magistrates can lead to cases of discrimination that mainly affect poor blacks.
Along these same lines, Human Rights Watch criticized the amendment approved in April, estimating that it “promotes lethal police operations in communities and fills prisons with people who should not be behind bars.”
According to data cited during the debate in the Supreme Court, 20 grams of marijuana are enough for a young, illiterate black man to be considered a trafficker, while in the case of an educated white man the amount is 58 grams on average.
“We want to avoid this discrimination between rich and poor, we want a rule that is the same for everyone,” said the president of the Supreme Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, during a session last week.
The justices have proposed amounts ranging from 10 to 25 grams, although a minority within the court has indicated that Congress should be the one to establish it.
Equating abortion with homicide
Another of the controversial issues being debated in Congress is the bill that proposes to tighten the rules for performing an abortion.
The proposal was presented at the beginning of this month by deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante, of the Liberal Party (PL), led by former president Jair Bolsonaro, and proposes a modification of the Civil Code, in order to establish penalties similar to those of homicide for women who terminate a pregnancy after 22 weeks.
In Brazil, the 1940 law authorizes abortion if there is a risk to the woman’s life, if she was raped or if the fetus has a brain malformation, with no time restrictions for performing the procedure. Outside of these exceptions, terminating a pregnancy can carry penalties of up to four years in prison.
The new proposal qualifies abortion after week 22 as “simple homicide,” even in cases of rape, and provides for a punishment of six to 20 years, double the maximum penalty for a rapist.
Faced with the protests, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, decided to put the brakes on. Instead of being brought directly to the plenary session, a commission will be created to “debate the issue broadly in the second semester,” he announced last Tuesday.
Its approval can especially affect minor victims of rape, who often do not dare to speak or do not detect signs of pregnancy until much later.
According to a recent survey by the Datafolha institute, 35% of Brazilians defend the prohibition of abortion without exceptions, while hundreds of women took to the streets of several cities in the country to cry out that “a girl is not a mother.”
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