“In this year and a half of operation of the laboratory extension in Madeira, we have detected the appearance of seven new substances in the Autonomous Region of Madeira alone, most of them were detected in seizures by the Judiciary Police”, said Maria João Caldeira, an expert from the Judicial Police Laboratory.
Maria João Caldeira spoke via videoconference at a parliamentary hearing requested by the PSD entitled "Clarifications on programs to combat and dissuade the consumption of drugs and psychoactive substances in the Autonomous Region of Madeira”.
The expert guaranteed that these “substances have never before been detected anywhere else in Portugal”.
In a note released by the Legislative Assembly of Madeira about the hearing, it is said that the expert considered that the recent amendment to the Drugs Law is still “a little lost on the matter, limiting itself to identifying the drugs that are being flagged, in addition to the casuistry” .
“We carry out studies and when we find something out of the ordinary, we communicate it to Europe and our national representative, without prejudice to establishing other communication mechanisms”, said Maria João Caldeira, quoted in the note.
The expert also said that “the PJ is ready to move forward with a project to study Madeira's wastewater, for research and later for its detection and evaluation”.
In terms of identifying drugs flagged in Madeira, the Scientific Police specialist at the PJ Laboratory reported that the time was “two years for the new phenomena, which were no longer new, however at this moment the response time has reduced to a few months, maximum three”.
“In terms of substances seized, it was also found that the most sold drug would be ‘bloom’”, she added, explaining that it was a “synthetic drug that only last year led to more people being hospitalised in the archipelago”, the majority of whom were young people.
At the hearing, the PJ expert suggested the implementation of "more general legislation, as "one of the hypotheses to improve the problem of drug consumption in Madeira”, warning that the low commercial values of these drugs are the main incentives for their consumption.
According to published data, Madeira is the second region in the country where the consumption of new psychoactive substances is highest, after the Azores, she highlighted.