The (in)applicability of the insignificance principle in the crime of carrying drugs for personal use

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the possibility of applying the principle of insignificance in the crime of possession of drugs for personal consumption (art. 28, of law 11.343/2006). Thus, the aim is to interconnect the principles of harmfulness, freedom, and proportionality in line with precedents of the Superior Court of Justice and the Federal Supreme Court to elucidate the positions and foundations adopted given its possible application. While part of the doctrine/jurisprudence understands that the principle of insignificance does not apply to the use and trafficking of drugs, as they are crimes of abstract danger, and the quantity of the substance seized is irrelevant, the other part argues that its inapplicability implies a direct violation of the principle of offense, guaranteeing dogma provided for in item XXXV of article 5 from Federal Constitution.