Checkmate: Colombia Will Decriminalize Drugs

[Judi Lynn]

Checkmate: Colombia Will Decriminalize Drugs
Thursday, 15 March 2012 00:00

Editor's Note: President Porfirio Lobo of Honduras last week invited Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos Mexico's President Felipe Calderón to attend a meeting of the presidents of the Central American Integration System (SICA) on March 24 in Guatemala. The focus of the reunion will be a proposal by Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina to legalize drugs.

By Phillip Smith

The government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is preparing legislation that will set "personal dose" amounts for drugs that will allow for their possession without the possibility of arrest or prosecution, the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo reported Tuesday. The decriminalization legislation could be presented as early this week, the newspaper said in its exclusive report.

Colombia was the first Latin American country to decriminalize drug possession after a ruling by its Constitutional Court in 1994. But during the presidency of Santos' predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, the government amended the constitution to criminalize drug use, effectively re-criminalizing drug possession.

Last year, the Colombian Supreme Court threw out Uribe's changes, ruling that the possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use was a constitutional right. This pending legislation recognizes last year's ruling and actualizes it by setting the "personal dose" amounts.

More:
http://www.hondurasweekly.com/checkmate:-colombia-will-decriminalize-drugs-201203154983/

[sabrina 1]

1. Good for them, hopefully this will spread throughout the world and put an end to fake

and failed War on Drugs.

[naaman fletcher]

2. agreed,

however it's not totally clear that this helps. All parts of it, manufacturing, distribution, etc. also need to be legalized.

[sabrina 1]

3. True, but it is a step in the right direction. This mechanics of this fake war will probably

take a long, long time to dismantle. There is so much money in it for so many I am sure it will be fought furiously by those who have profited from it.

But each step towards decriminalization is a blow to the profiteers imo and hopefully other countries will follow this example and begin the long overdue process of finally putting an end to one of the most shameful, although not the only one, periods in our history. So many people have been harmed by the so-called 'cure' and none of that can be changed. But at least the private prison industry will be denied a few more victims.

[naaman fletcher]

4. yup nt