The president of the republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, promulgated the new drug law on Thursday, following the decision of the Constitutional Court on its constitutionality.
“After the Constitutional Court decided to ignore the position of the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, thereby clarifying an issue important for the application of the diploma”, the President of the Republic will “proceed as soon as possible with the promulgation thereof. as it is sent”.
The decree “clarifies the sanctions regime regarding possession of drugs for consumption, regardless of quantity, and establishes regular deadlines for updating regulatory standards.amending Decree-Law No. 15/93 of January 22 and Law No. 30/2000 of November 29,” reads the note published on the website of the Presidency of the Republic.
However, Marcelo draws attention “to the fact that the Assembly of the Republic has deviated from the government on the sensitive point of defining the amount of drugs in the possession of someone who should be considered a mere consumer or an effective dealer “.
Don’t forget that this week the Constitutional Court validated the constitutionality of the parliamentary decree that decriminalized the consumption of synthetic drugs (by equating them with the so-called “classic drugs”, whose detention for consumption was decriminalized in 2001) and put an end to raised the possibility of conviction for the crime of consumption (which remained if the amount of substance in possession exceeded the “average daily dose for 10 days”), following the request for preventive abstract inspection filed by the President of the republic.
Unanimity in the decision of the Constitutional Court
During the public lecture at Palácio Ratton in Lisbon Judge Carlos Medeiros Carvalho announced that the “TC has unanimously decided not to rule on the unconstitutionality” of the regulatory standards of the decree approved by the General Assembly of the Republic on July 19.
The explanation of the decision was endorsed by the President of the TC, José João Abrantes: “By understanding that, within the scope of the duty of prior hearing (…), the case does not arise as issues concerning the Autonomous Regions”, as Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had justified the dispatch with the “lack of consultations” of the governing bodies of the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores.
When he sent this law to the TC on August 17, The head of state has not failed to “make reservations on a substantive issue, and in line with the insight that already stems from the time of President Jorge Sampaio, now especially in view of the particular incidence of new types of drugs in the autonomous regions, the sanctions regime that introduced therein and the regionalization of health services, which are fundamental to the application of the new diploma”.
At the beginning of August, Madeira had asked the head of state not to enact the new drug law, citing “violation of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic”.
The diploma issued today was approved on July 19 by the General Assembly of the Republic with votes in favor of the PS, IL, BE, PCP, PAN and Livre, against Chega and the abstention of the PSD and Socialist deputies Maria da Luz Rosinha, Carlos Brás, Rui Lage, Fátima Fonseca, Catarina Lobo, Maria João Castro, Tiago Barbosa Ribeiro, António Faria and Joaquim Barreto.
Source: DN
