Argentina just decriminalized the possession of marijuana:
In an eight-page writ, the Supreme Court said it is unconstitutional to punish personal consumption of marijuana if that action does not harm third parties. However, the ruling of the Court would not mean a complete decriminalization of marijuana consumption, as the Court statement signed unanimously urged "all the state powers to implement a policy against the drug illegal trafficking and to adopt preventive health measures."The government backing the initiative to decriminalize drug consumers, as it would allow the government to focus its policies on drug trafficking networks instead of users. Cabinet Chief AnĂbal Fernández said the decriminalization would allow users "to be treated as addicts instead of criminals." [...]
The Cabinet Chief today said the expected ruling would "mean the end of the repressive policies of the government against users."
The case against changing drug laws in the US has been that the devil we know—which discourages law-abiding souls from going wayward, but fills prisons, strips civil liberties, and distracts police—is better than the unknown devil of legalization. Decrim here would send the wrong message to kids, who would all start using drugs, and society would neatly collapse on itself and this great America your uncle fought for in Nam would be no more and it would all be because we legalized drugs. Do you want that to happen, traitor?
But now, with Mexico decriminalizing drugs last Friday, we're going to look at the devil we don't know with a microscope. That unfamiliar antagonist will no doubt encourage some folks to try drugs for the first time. Some of them will get addicted. Some of them will die from their addictions. But it is worse? We've already observed this devil in Portugal (where drug use dropped and treatment rose after drugs were decriminalized). But when Portugal decriminalized drugs we could say it was across the ocean, where water runs up, supply begets demand, and teenagers wake up at dawn to do homework while vacuuming the house. But on Friday it was Mexico, and today it's Argentina. Now what?
Two things. More counties will decriminalize drugs—without the US jumping down their throats—because arresting otherwise law abiding people for putting something in their mouths is as insane as arresting a man for putting his cock in another guy's butt. Second, the world will build an irrefutable body of evidence—science that shows decriminalization works everywhere—that proves the decrim devil is the lesser of two evils.
The US can't interminably defend the most draconian drug punishments in the world—we're the leading jailer on the planet, thanks to those tough drug laws we passed in the 1980s (thanks, Joe Biden)—when countries all over the map are forging sanity.
