In the coming days, the Portuguese Socialist Party plans to submit a preliminary resolution to the Health Committee, a first step aimed at creating a working group to study the legalization of cannabis.
Eurico Brilhante Dias, put up PS, there is a lot of information about this project that will not appear soon in 2024. In the middle of the street, the part of the customer’s information about experts and the organization of conferences on the active.
“The non-medical use of cannabis is an issue that the Socialist Party is discussing, and there will be a conference in the Council of the Republic later this month; this summer, there was an important step forward in one of the EU member states, in Germany,” said Eurico Brillhante Dias. “.
A working group will be established within the Health Committee “because it is a public health issue” and will aim to “study and listen to specialists from different fields in order to deepen reflection” which should conclude by the end of the year, with a conference “focusing on the non-medical use of cannabis, and from there, The parliamentary group will consider moving forward with a legislative initiative.
If this timetable can be met, legislation on the issue could be introduced before next year’s summer recess. However, this may be difficult, as much of parliamentary activity will be suspended from mid-October to the end of November to allow for review and discussion of the 2024 state budget.
Eurico Brilhante Dias stressed that the dialogue on the recreational use of cannabis is also taking place within political parties and other parliamentary groups. The Left Bloc submitted a bill in June 2022, and the Liberal Initiative Bill was accepted in Parliament in April.
The Portuguese Socialist Party does not intend to take this path unilaterally, but rather seeks to cooperate with other parliamentary groups during this legislative session. “Portuguese society must engage in this discourse, and Parliament must serve as a platform for this conversation,” the President of the Socialist Body stressed.
The Left Bloc and the Liberal Initiative are re-presenting the proposals they put forward during the last legislative council, which were not put to a vote in the Health Committee and which were outdated with the dissolution of Parliament.
The Left Bloc previously faced the rejection of one of its legislative proposals in early 2019, when the Socialist Parliamentary Group expressed a divided position, with abstentions, positive votes and negative votes. After Parliament approved the medical use of cannabis, the Left Bloc was quick to warn that the next step would be recreational use. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) has already adopted a proposal to this effect in the Portuguese Congress.
The Left Bloc’s proposal calls for not only the establishment of authorized points of sale and online sales, but also the cultivation of a maximum of five plants per person.
The Liberal initiative will allow online and retail sales of cannabis in various types of establishments, with the exception of educational institutions, health institutions, sports facilities, entertainment spaces intended for families or children, and gas stations. Each citizen will be allowed to grow up to six plants.
