Miguel Costa Matos, re-elected general secretary of the Socialist Youth (JS), defended this Sunday in Braga that the PS should take advantage of the absolute majority to advance the cause of cannabis legalization.
Speaking at the conclusion of the XXIII Congress of the JS, in which he was re-elected, Miguel Costa Matos said that legalizing cannabis “is not a divisive matter”, but rather “a structuring matter in public health”.
“There are others [causas] in which we must take advantage of this absolute majority of the Socialist Party to move forward. And that is undoubtedly the case with the legalization of cannabis,” he said.
“Legalizing cannabis is not a cause of division, it is a structuring cause in public health, it is a necessity for us to monitor, regulate and control the substance that is now being delivered to the streets. It is legislation based on evidence, it starts from the examples of Canada, Uruguay, of some states of the United States of America, it will be the case of Germany, it will be the case of Malta,” he added.
For Miguel Costa Matos, it is now necessary to sign “a new social contract” with young people, “at a time when so many are turning to the extreme right or liberalism”.
“We have to show that it is here with the socialists, it is here through the welfare state, through equal opportunity that we are really building their freedom and fulfillment,” he said.
For Miguel Costa Matos, “an absolutely central axis in this new social contract must be the fight against climate change”.
“It’s time to define ourselves as the biggest ecologist party in Portugal. It’s us, JS, the builders of the basic climate law,” he said.
A law that, he added, is needed to “get it off the ground”.
“We need to be aware that if it is expensive to act, it is much more expensive not to act. And it is much more expensive to make the climate crisis last,” he warned.
Speaking to the PS general secretary and Prime Minister, António Costa, the leader of the JS “emphasized the reformist and leftist character with which he has run the country and the way he has valued young people in his intervention and governance.” .
Miguel Costa Matos, the only candidate, was re-elected today as Secretary General of the JS, with 195 votes in favour, 33 spaces and 10 zero.
Source: DN
