Brazil’s Supreme Court recently voted to decriminalize the use, cultivation, and consumption of marijuana for personal purposes. The majority of the court, nine out of eleven justices, supported ceasing to treat possession, growing, and consumption of cannabis for personal use as a criminal offense.
While this shift in policy is significant, the consumption of marijuana in public places remains prohibited. The judges also debated how much cannabis should be considered a reasonable amount for an individual user versus a trafficker, with suggestions ranging from 25 to 60 grams.
The court’s decision is set to be announced in the coming hours, triggered by an appeal from a prisoner serving time for hiding three grams of marijuana in their cell.
In Brazil, the laws related to marijuana have been in effect since 2006, penalizing those who acquire, store, transport, or possess drugs for personal use without authorization.
Legislating marijuana for recreational purposes is relatively rare worldwide.
So far, Uruguay has legalized marijuana in 2013 and Canada in 2018. The European Union member states of Malta, Luxembourg, and most recently Germany have also done so. Marijuana is, however, much more commonly authorized for medicinal purposes, with approximately 50 countries permitting its use. In Brazil, several patients have had to resort to the legal system to secure the right to consume cannabidiol (CBD) products to treat conditions like epilepsy.
