House buys Supreme Court time in controversial drug law issue

The House Constitution and Justice Committee, during today's session. Photo: Bruno Spada/Câmara dos Deputados

Left-wing lawmakers at the House and Constitution and Justice Committee on Tuesday postponed a vote on a bill to enshrine in Brazil’s Constitution an ambiguous distinction between drug users and dealers, effectively buying more time for the Supreme Court to reach a landmark decision on the issue before Congress.

The current key legislation on the issue, enacted in 2006, defines that in order to differentiate users from drug dealers, the judge must consider factors such as the quantity of the drug seized, the location of the seizure, and the “social and personal circumstances” of the defendant.

Legal scholars overwhelmingly agree that the current subjective criteria allows for decisions often applied with racial and class bias.

Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco authored a bill to criminalize drug possession in any quantity, removing the subjective criteria.

Back in April, senators approved a different wording by a 53-9 vote, with an amendment proposed by opposition whip Rogério Marinho that effectively waters down Mr. Pacheco’s original intention and keeps the distinction between user and dealers ambiguous.

Far-right Congressman Ricardo Salles, the bill’s rapporteur in the House, kept the language approved by senators.

“My initial intention was to extinguish that decision between user and dealer,” Mr. Salles said today at the committee. He nonetheless refrained from making changes to the legislation, which would provoke a new vote in the Senate.

Constitutional amendments, which require a supermajority of three-fifths of each legislative chamber, cannot be vetoed by the president.

The intention of the right-wing lawmakers is not to change the current policy on drugs, but to preempt a potential upcoming decision by the Supreme Court that could decriminalize cannabis possession.

The justices already formed a majority in favor of defining an objective quantity to distinguish users from dealers, although they disagree about the exact amount. Furthermore, five justices have voted in favor of decriminalizing cannabis possession for personal use. The trial was suspended in early March at the request of Justice Dias Toffoli, with himself and two other justices left to vote.

Also today, Justice Toffoli concluded his review of the case files. This allows Chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso to schedule a date to resume the trial.