Regulation of marijuana by the Brazilian Senate: a public health issue.

The prohibitionist model for combatting drugs has run its course in Brazil 1, as shown by the violence associated with the drug traffic, illegal trade of adulterated substances, lost fiscal revenues, waste of public resources, diversion of attention from society’s real problems (in favor of a false solution), and lack of clinical studies on the efficacy and effectiveness of currently banned medicinal plants 2. However, the Brazilian Legislative Branch appears to be aware of the population’s evolving opinions on the issue. The National Senate and Chamber of Deputies recently launched a discussion on the regulation of marijuana in Brazil, urged by a citizens’ petition submitted in February 2014. The website of the National Senate provides a mechanism for citizens’ participation called the e-Citizenship Portal, established by Ruling no. 3/2011 of the Senate Steering Board 3. Legislative Ideas is the link in this portal that offers citizens the possibility of petitioning for bills to create new laws, amend existing ones, or improve the National Constitution. The ideas are analyzed according to the portal’s terms of usage, verifying the wording’s consistency and coherence, absence of inappropriate, disparaging, or offensive terms, and non-violation of inalterable Constitutional provisions. The e-Citizenship Portal allows citizens to support a petition by completing a form. To confirm their support, citizens must access a single and temporary link, sent by email. Following confirmation, the system automatically tabulates the messages. The petition must receive at least twenty thousand messages of support within a four-month period in order to be submitted formally to the Senate Committee on Human Rights and Participatory Legislation 3. The first initiative that materialized through this portal was a petition launched by physical therapists that led to an interactive public hearing in the Senate Committee on Social Affairs on November 28, 2013 4. Through this same channel, the e-Citizenship Portal received and recorded a petition on January 30, 2014, to regulate the recreational, medicinal, and industrial uses of marijuana 5. The portal tabulated the number of incoming support messages in real time, displaying the total amount received immediately after each online confirmation. With more than 20 thousand messages received in only four days, the petition generated proposition SUG 8/2014, received by the Senate Committee on Human Rights on February 11, 2014, with Senator Cristovam Buarque of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT/DF) as the designated rapporteur 6. This mass support for a petition to regulate marijuana meant a major step forward in Brazilian society, mirroring an international trend. According to Room 7, initiatives to regulate marijuana highlight the need to PERSPECTIVAS PERSPECTIVES 1588