Mr. António Manuel Leitão da Silva:

I have just one hour because this afternoon I have a meeting with the minister of the interior in Lisbon. One of the points on the agenda is going to be the one the Deputy mentioned. It is very difficult. As he said, most of these drugs are fake but if the police can do nothing on this then that is something that is a gap in the legislation. I do not know how to tackle that technically. We have been through some proposals but I do not know how to do it technically. If the police seize these fake drugs at the very beginning and the drug is nothing, they will not do the police job later on in the process. That means it opens the opportunity to have good drugs in these individuals. It is a logical itinerary. Right now, there is a lack of legislation about this kind of fake drugs. There was a campaign in Lisbon for tourists a few years ago - I think it was led by the police and municipality - to have them not buy fake drugs. It is a little bit ridiculous, but there is a lack of a technical approach for this.

We have this problem to a significant extent in Porto as well. There are a specific group of individuals who are selling drugs and most of these problematic individuals develop a sense of insecurity among the population that is absolutely huge. It is not just among the population. If you go to nomad sites where you can find tourist information about Porto, it is written that in Porto you can have illicit drugs available everywhere. That is not true because most of these illicit fake drugs can be found in diversion places like nearby bars and night spots, but ultimately Porto is being referred to as having drugs available on the street for those who want to buy and that is a gap in our legislation. This issue is on the table politically right now.