The Legislative Assembly of Portugal has given its approval for adjustments to Directive 94/96 of 26 March 1996, better known as the “Narcotics Law”.
The amended law broadens the definition of personal use and no longer considers possession of more than the permitted amount for a 10-day supply as proof of trafficking. This means that, henceforth, when seizing substances from a user, the police must prove that these substances were intended for the black market, rather than for personal use, before they can charge the user with “drug trafficking”.
This week, the Portuguese government approved the final text of the new Narcotics Law, the result of a bill presented to parliament in March by a delegation of MPs, mostly from the Social Democratic Party (PSD). After some reservations expressed by the judicial police and the PSD itself, the law received parliamentary approval.
Nevertheless, the final version of the text, following a long discussion within the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, is the result of a collective debate on the PSD bill as well as on another bill tabled in June by the Socialist Party (PS).
Expanding the Scope of Decriminalization: The bill initially submitted by the PSD aimed to change the outdated name of the authority responsible for updating individual maximum daily doses. The intention was to modernize the legislation by replacing the defunct Higher Council of Forensic Medicine with the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Medico-Legal Sciences.
However, following the parliamentary committee review and the PS bill, a final text was drawn up which, in addition to updating the name of the organization, stipulates that possession of a quantity exceeding a 10-day supply is not necessarily a sign of trafficking.
This measure is all the more important to implement the mechanisms proposed in Directive No. 94/96 of 26 March 1996, which establishes the diagnostic procedures and the expertise required to define the state of drug addiction, as well as the maximum quantitative limits for each individual daily dose of the plants, substances or preparations listed in Tables I to IV annexed to Decree-Law No. 15/93 of 22 January 1993, which are the most commonly consumed.
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