The Portuguese Parliament today approved the legalization of cannabis for medicinal purposes from 1 July this year. The bill has been finally validated in the Portuguese Parliament. This project is the result of consultations between Bloco de Esquerda, PAN and with the help of the Portuguese Socialist Party. Self-cultivation is forbidden for her. Is it legal to smoke weed in Portugal ? Lisbob, the expatriate assistant in Portugal, tells you everything about the legalization of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Medical cannabis is now legal in Portugal

Legalization for therapeutic purposes

Parliament voted today in a final and comprehensive vote, with the favorable votes of all parties minus the CDS (which abstained), a bill that will make legal the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Parliament did not dare to go further and attempt the recreational legalization of cannabis, and ultimately did not allow self-cultivation.

Is it legal to smoke weed in Portugal ?

No, it’s not legal to smoke cannabis in Portugal.

Cannabis self-cultivation remains banned in Portugal

Initially it was envisaged that patients who had prescribed the use of cannabis - a powerful painkiller - could obtain the substance through the self-cultivation of cannabis plants. However, the opposition of the PSD, the CDS and the PCP abandoned this hypothesis, with a view to adopting a law that would allow the therapeutic use of cannabis. If the authors insisted on allowing the possibility of self-cultivation, the project would be launched.

Thus in the final bill adopted by the Portuguese Parliament cannabis can be consumed only in a medicinal form, with prescription and bought in pharmacies. Marketable medicines must have prior approval from Infarmed, Portugal's pharmaceutical regulator. The state itself can produce drugs through the military laboratory. The law also says that the state should "stimulate" scientific research in this area.

The law will come into effect on July 1 and the government will have 60 days to regulate and enforce it.