The supreme court in Argentina has ruled that it is unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption.
The decision follows a case of five young men who were arrested with a few marijuana cigarettes in their pockets.
The Argentine court ruled that: “Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state.”
Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said private behaviour was legal, “as long as it doesn’t constitute clear danger. The state cannot establish morality“…
Argentina’s move follows rulings by several other countries across the region, including Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia.
The aim of such moves is to enable police to focus their efforts on the big criminals in the drugs trade rather than dealing with petty cases, says our correspondent, Candace Piette. But it also marks a shift a dramatic regional shift to the decades-old US-backed policy of running repressive military-style wars on the drug trade, she adds.
Another chunk of South America makes a political and legal decision – independent of 19th Century “morality”.
No comments:
Post a Comment