Brazilian Supreme Court votes to decriminalize personal use of marijuana

June 26 (UPI) -- Brazil's highest court voted Tuesday to decriminalize the possession of marijuana for personal use after nearly 10 years of deliberating, but more decisions still need to be made.

The 11-person Brazilian Supreme Court , which began its deliberation on cannabis decriminalization in 2015, decriminalized use of the plant for up to 40 grams.

"The position is clear that no user of any drug can be considered a criminal," Justice Dias Toffoli, the sixth judge, said as reported by multiple news outlets.

Tuesday's ruling attempts to make clearer a vague 2006 federal law aimed at reducing the country's high prison population in Brazil, which left open for interpretation what defines drug trafficking versus personal use as it was suggested that most "drug trafficking" arrests in Brazil are people carrying small quantities quite possibly intended only for personal use.

Neighboring Argentina decriminalized personal use in 2009 in a regional trend that included the likes of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, while Uruguay fully legalized in 2013. Meanwhile, Brazil still has restrictive medical cannabis use policies.

But while it still technically remains illegal, it has yet to be determined what constitutes "personal use" in a decision the supreme court judge's could make as early as Wednesday as the Congress works on tightening laws on drugs which have the possibility to conflict with the Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling.

"Let it be clear to the entire population that marijuana consumption continues to be considered illicit because this is the will of the legislature," Supreme Court President Justice Luís Roberto Barros clarified Tuesday , stating his belief that legalization is not within the Supreme Court's purview but should instead be addressed by Brazil's Congress.

Drug trafficking crimes make up 28% of Brazil's prison population, representing more people in jail for "trafficking" than for any other crime. After the United States and China, Brazil has the world's third-highest prison population.

"An advance in drug policy in Brazil! This is a public health issue, not safety and incarceration!" Chico Alencar, a Brazilian lawmaker, posted on X Tuesday after the ruling.

It took a local Brazilian judge in 2018 to rule that the parents of a 4-year old child who suffered from cerebral palsy and West Syndrome could grow enough marijuana to produce medicine from the plant to help their child with needed medical treatments.

Judge Antonio Jose Pecego, a criminal court jurist in Uberlandia, the second largest municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, justified the decision at the time by characterizing it as a protection of the rights to life, dignity and health.

However, on Tuesday, the country's Senate president was critical of the supreme court ruling, claiming that the justice's were "overstepping the authority" of the Brazilian Congress.

"I disagree with the Supreme Court's decision," Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco, 47, a Socialist Democratic Party member, told reporters in the country's capital, Brasilia. "There is a logic that, in my opinion, cannot be overturned by a court decision that decriminalizes a certain narcotic substance, encroaching on the legislative authority that belongs to Congress."

The country's former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso , a Socialist Democratic Party member, in 2009 joined the ex-presidents of Mexico and Colombia calling for marijuana decriminalization for personal use and a change in tactics on the so-called "war on drugs," Cardoso, now 93, saying at the time, "You have to start somewhere."

"There is an appropriate path for this discussion to move forward and that is the legislative process," Pacheco said about the process of establishing the South American nations' drug policy. "It is something that, obviously, arouses broad discussion and it is a subject of preoccupation for Congress."

And the idea of legalization is likely to stay in the hands of Brazil's legislative process as the country's current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , a Worker's Party member on his second stint in the presidency, has remained largely mum on the issue.

Previously, Lula da Silva, 78, had said his administration would be "prepared with society and allies and delivered on the date set by the Superior Electoral Court."