First step

Justice Gilmar Mendes votes in favor of decriminalization of drug use

Justice Gilmar Mendes votes in favor of decriminalization of drug use

The historic judgment that is underway in the Supreme Court and that could result in the decriminalization of drug possession for personal consumption in Brazil was interrupted on Thursday, August 20, after Justice Edson Fachin requested an adjournment. Before Fachin, the Special Appeal submitted to the Court by the São Paulo Public Defender’s Office received a favorable vote from Gilmar Mendes, the reporting justice in the case.

“The criminalization of drug possession for personal consumption is unconstitutional,” said Justice Mendes in reference to article 28 of the current Drug Law (11,343/2006). “It is well known that drugs cause physical harm to the consumer. Nevertheless, treating drugs criminally is disproportionate,” he concluded. According to the justice, anyone who takes the criminal approach as the first or only solution “makes things easier, but straightaway gives up looking for measures that more closely match the problem”.

Click here to read the vote by Gilmar Mendes.

Justice Mendes cited several studies on the topic, including those mentioned and analyzed in the amicus curiae brief submitted to the Court by Conectas, Sou da Paz Institute, ITTC (Land, Employment and Citizenship Institute) and Pastoral Carcerária (the Catholic Church’s prisoner outreach service). The brief, that presented the justices with independent technical opinions on the case being judged, can be accessed in full here.

Representing this group of organizations, the lawyer Rafael Custódio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas, made an oral statement to the justices expressing the facts and arguments contained in the amicus curiae brief.

“This law, once again under debate in this Court, constitutes one of the main drivers of our policy of mass incarceration, which has given us the shameful distinction of having world’s 4th largest prison population,” said Custódio. “People of ‘flesh and blood’ hope that this Supreme Court will follow the tide of history, which today, in shame, is finally moving in pursuit of other drug policies: less abusive, less incarceratory and less selective.”

Watch the full oral statement, made on Wednesday August 19:

Click here to read the transcript of the statement by Rafael Custódio.