Petition on the self-cultivation of cannabis in hearing at the Assembly of the Republic

The legalization of self-cultivation of the plant Cannabis sativa L. for personal consumption will be debated tomorrow in the Assembly of the Republic (AR), in a hearing in the Health Commission to the petitioners who invoke inalienable human rights for the cultivation of cannabis. 

The petition was filed in the AR on 22 July last year, with Daniel Alexandre de Marcal Ribeiro as 1st Petitioner, and was accepted in AR with only 23 signatures. Despite not having the 4 signatures needed to be discussed in Plenary, the petition was sent to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees on November 14, 2019, which requested its redistribution to the Health Commission  “because it deals with matters within the most direct scope of competence of the latter Commission”. In fact, the official document reads a handwritten note by Luís Marques Guedes, president of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, which states the following: “To the Health Committee, although the 1st Committee cannot remain indifferent the content of the petition, since the reference to personal consumption refers to laws of a foral nature and the petitioners themselves refer to the existence of inalienable human rights”.

Daniel Marçal, the 1st petitioner, guarantees that he spent two years preparing the entire text on which the petition was based, including more than 40 pages of bibliography. “Cannabis: Foundations for the solution of a social problem”  is a 280 page document, of which only 40 are references and bibliography.

“It is a right of citizens to sow and harvest plants, whether for food or medical treatment, as well as for simple well-being, ornamentation or the production of goods. The right to health, well-being, liberty and equality is enshrined in the fundamental principles of the constitution of the republic and in the universal charter of human rights. The objective is to establish, in a logical and irrefutable way, my right as a citizen (and that of whoever else signs the document) to plant and consume cannabis. As there is no type of logical argument to maintain the ban, as demonstrated in this work, the government has an obligation to repeal laws restricting individual freedoms that prevent its citizens from producing and consuming plants, and as it is clearly unfair, the law should not be enforced”, argues Daniel Marcal in the introduction to the document: “This essay is a petition in the form of a thesis on cannabis”.

The arguments are numerous and range from the medicinal properties of cannabis to the inalienable right of each individual to have access to “a food with unique beneficial properties and a source of raw materials”.
raw materials for industry”.

The text of the petition can be read in full here and continues to receive subscriptions on the website of public petition, counting at the moment with more than 2.200 subscribers.
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Featured Image: Parliament.pt website

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Laura Ramos

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With a degree in Journalism from the University of Coimbra, Laura Ramos has a postgraduate degree in Photography and has been a Journalist since 1998. Winner of the Business of Cannabis Awards in the category "Journalist of the Year 2024", Laura was a correspondent for Jornal de Notícias in Rome, Italy, and Press Officer in the Office of the Minister of Education of the 21st Portuguese Government. She has an international certification in Permaculture (PDC) and created the street-art photography archive “Say What? Lisbon” @saywhatlisbon. Co-founder and Editor of CannaReporter® and coordinator of PTMC - Portugal Medical Cannabis, Laura directed the documentary “Pacientes” and was part of the steering group of the first Postgraduate Course in GxP's for Medicinal Cannabis in Portugal, in partnership with the Military Laboratory and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon.

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