Mr. António Manuel Leitão da Silva:

The Deputy raises a good point. Of course, the status of drug user is not written on an individual's ID. We have had legislation since 1996 that helps the police to consider what the pattern of consumption is, such as how much the individual is able to consume in ten days. Assessing this number is tricky because addiction cannot be considered as a mathematical equation, but still, for police officers and to help police activity, we have a certain level that is predictable for the drug user to use in the course of ten days.

The increasing number of recreational drugs poses a different challenge and, as I mentioned previously, it definitely requires a challenge to policing philosophy. As I said earlier, it is almost impossible, not just theoretically but in practical actions, to change an individual’s status with the police from criminal to something else. That is why I think that in a decriminalised scenario, the police still have a role. It is not something they have to forget about. First, of course, they have the role of producing information for other measured police activity and, at the end of the day in the Portuguese system, the police have the job of referring these individuals to the dissuasion commissions. Should this be a job for the police? I do not think so. I think the police can do the job but this is much more of a social work approach. I am not saying the police do not do social work daily. Thank God they do, because that means they do not have to chase criminals 24 hours a day, but still, I do not support the idea that these jobs should be done specifically by the police.