Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 11 July 2024
Committee on Drugs Use
Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation: Discussion (Resumed)
9:30 am
Mr. António Manuel Leitão da Silva:
I do not. I have been following some cases such as that of Switzerland and other places but I do not have an opinion on that. From a technical, very judicial perspective, we can try different scenarios but at this stage, I do not know if we are ready for taking the burden of being illicit from drugs in Portugal because the drugs are still illicit. We are not criminalising but there is a sanction for them. The next step will probably be the free usage of drugs but there will probably be three key paths to take. I know the experience of Switzerland and probably understand some of them, particularly where the drugs are supplied by public institutions, but at a large scale, I have some reasonable doubts that it may be okay.