Brazil’s Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that a majority of judges have voted to decriminalize the possession of marijuana for personal use after a lengthy and divisive trial.
Eight of the top court’s 11 judges agreed that small amounts of cannabis possession should remain an “illicit act” but one that is not subject to criminal proceedings.
“We have a majority” to decide that “possession of cannabis for personal use is an illicit act” but not “of a criminal nature,” stated court president Luis Roberto Barroso.
The judges also discussed the threshold that differentiates casual users from traffickers, with proposed limits ranging from 25 grams to 60 grams. Barroso indicated that the final decision on this matter will be announced on Wednesday.
The issue was brought to the Supreme Court by lawyers representing a prisoner who received an additional sentence for hiding three grams of cannabis in his cell.
The trial began in 2015 and has faced multiple interruptions.
Brazil’s current law, dating back to 2006, considers it a crime to “acquire, possess or transport drugs without authorization.” While the law removed prison sentences for these offenses, it did not clarify the quantity considered for personal use, which carries lighter punishments such as community service, versus trafficking, which entails heavy prison terms. This interpretation has been left to the discretion of police, prosecutors, and trial judges.
In voting for decriminalization in August, Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes argued that existing laws disproportionately punish “young people, especially black people, who are treated as drug traffickers for possessing small amounts.”
The topic remains highly controversial in Brazil, where powerful conservative movements staunchly oppose any decriminalization of marijuana. In April, the conservative-majority Senate approved a bill aiming to make possessing any amount of drugs a constitutional offense. This amendment will soon be debated in the lower house Chamber of Deputies.
The medicinal use of cannabis has also sparked debate, with patients often needing to go to court to receive treatments based on CBD, the non-psychotropic molecule of cannabis, for certain severe forms of epilepsy.
While multiple countries have decriminalized the recreational use of cannabis in recent years, fully legalizing its use remains rare. Uruguay did so in 2013, and Germany recently became the largest European Union country to legalize recreational cannabis.
