The decision by the majority of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ministers to decriminalize the possession of marijuana for personal use places Brazil among at least 14 countries where consumption is no longer criminally punished. The court's judgment was officially concluded this Wednesday (26), establishing 40 grams or six female plants as the limit to differentiate a user from a trafficker. Despite being decriminalized, marijuana possession in the country will remain prohibited and can be punished with some administrative sanction, which is a stricter understanding than in most countries that have undergone a similar process.
A survey conducted by three international NGOs (Release, International Drug Policy Consortium, and Accountability International) shows that there are 34 countries worldwide with some form of decriminalization of narcotics across their entire territory. Additionally, Australia, Canada, and the United States have states or provinces that have decriminalized drugs to some extent.
There are countries that have adopted rules similar to the Brazilian Supreme Court's understanding and impose fines on people caught possessing or smoking marijuana in public. This is the case in Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Luxembourg, and some states in Australia. In Europe, at least 15 countries have decriminalized the possession of drugs, with different maximum amounts allowed for substances such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and MDMA, among others. In the case of marijuana, the quantities that characterize personal use vary greatly on the continent, from 5 grams in the Netherlands to 100 grams in Spain.