Colombia Decriminalizes Cocaine And Weed, As Latin American Momentum For Drug Policy Reform Continue

By Author: Keith Anderson
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Colombia's Constitutional Courtroom Friday accredited the federal government's proposal to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of cocaine and marijuana for personal use. Anybody caught with lower than 20 grams of marijuana or one gram of cocaine for private use may receive bodily or psychological therapy relying on their state of consumption, but may not be prosecuted or detained, the court docket ruled.Colombia's move is a part of a rising pattern in Latin America. After many years of being brutalized by the U.S. authorities's failed prohibitionist drug policies, Latin American leaders are saying "sufficient is enough."Last week, the federal government of Uruguay introduced that it'll submit a proposal to legalize marijuana beneath government-controlled regulation and sale, making it the primary country on the earth the place the state would promote marijuana directly to its citizens. The proposal was drafted by Uruguayan President José Mujica and his employees and requires parliamentary approval earlier than being enacted.Friday's judicial ruling in Colombia represents yet one more necessary step in the rising ...
... political and judicial motion in Latin America and Europe to cease treating people who devour drugs as criminals worthy of incarceration. It's per prior rulings by Colombian courts earlier than former president Álvaro Uribe sought to undermine them, and likewise with rulings by the Supreme Court of Argentina in 2009 and other courts in the region. The Colombian Constitutional Court docket's decision is obviously most important in Colombia, the place it represents both a powerful repudiation of former president Uribe's push to criminalize people who use medication and a victory for President Juan Manuel Santos' call for a new path in drug policy.Most decriminalization initiatives in Latin America, nevertheless, are being proposed and enacted not by courts but by presidents and national legislatures. Along with President Santos, Guatemala's new president, Otto Pérez Molina, is an advocate of decriminalization as are - in varied ways and to different degrees - the presidents of Costa Rica, Uruguay, Ecuador and Argentina. Some Latin American countries, it must be pointed out, never criminalized drug possession in the first place. This trend follows within the footsteps of European reforms for the reason that 1990s. Portugal, which decriminalized drug possession in 2001, stands out as a model.Decriminalizing drug possession appears to have little affect on levels of illicit drug use. Its principal impacts are reducing arrests of drug customers, particularly those that are younger and/or members of minority teams; decreasing opportunities for low level police corruption; allowing police to deal with more critical crimes; decreasing felony justice system prices; and higher enabling individuals, families, communities and native governments to cope with dependancy as a health rather than criminal issue.The United States clearly lags far behind Europe and Latin America in ending the criminalization of drug possession. Momentum for reform is rising with respect to decriminalization of marijuana possession, with Massachusetts reducing penalties in 2008, California in 2010, Connecticut in 2011 and Rhode Island earlier this year. All states, nonetheless, deal with possession of different illegal drugs as a crime. 13 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government currently deal with possession of medicine for private use as a misdemeanor, with penalties of as much as a 12 months in jail. The remaining thirty-seven states treat possession of cocaine, heroin and other drugs as a felony, with penalties than can embody many years in prison.While decriminalization actually represents an essential step in the precise course, it doesn't handle many of the greater harms of prohibition, together with high ranges of crime, corruption and violence, empowerment of prison organizations, huge black markets and the dangerous well being penalties of medicine produced in the absence of regulatory oversight. Decriminalization of drug possession is a obligatory however not adequate step toward a more complete reform of the global drug prohibition regime.Looking for more information click here to visit.