Argentine court decriminalises limited use of drugs

[ConcernedCanuk]

Source: Irish Sun

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Argentine court decriminalises limited use of drugs

Irish Sun
Thursday 24th April, 2008
(IANS)

A federal court here has decriminalised the limited use of drugs, thus annulling thousands of cases involving people accused of possessing small quantities of marijuana.

/snip/

The court gave the ruling while acquitting two young people arrested for possession of ecstasy drugs at a music party in Buenos Aires in 2007.


Read more: http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/351993/cs/1/

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That'd sure clean up the USA's court calendar and prison space now wouldn't it?

Then the police can spend more time on REAL criminals.

Interesting, but not surprising, that Google turned up only ONE other link on this story,

That being Thaindian News

Hmmmmmmm . . .

[navarth]

1. uh-oh

Looks like there's been an uncontrolled outbreak of SANITY in Argentina!!!

INVADE!

[Warpy]

2. I knew there was a reason I kept Argentina on my short list

of possible places to move.

Most of the hemisphere is turning left. I'm so sick of fascism and being an uninsurable nonperson that the rest of the world is looking more attractive every day. I want to experience a humane environment at least once before I die.

I'm still getting eye surgeries every 2 weeks. When they're done, I'm hitting the road.

[Runcible Spoon]

3. come on down!

now that the smoke has cleared, the weather is fine down here in BA! :wave:

[Warpy]

9. OOOOH!

You mean I'll know somebody there? How special!

I have online friends in a lot of countries worldwide, but I managed to skip Argentina. Oh, I have an Argentine friend, but she's in France.

I know there's a large English speaking expat presence there. I don't want to be just another dumb Gringa who can't speak Spanish, so I'm kicking and clawing my way through bookwork now so I don't make a total fool of myself while I'm doing all these bloody biweekly surgeries.

I hope I'll be able to travel next winter/summer.

[Runcible Spoon]

18. well, it's been hard for me to learn any Spanish lol

everyone is too busy practicing and showing off English skills, even randomly on the street! Yeah there's a lot of expats, my fiance is Argentinian and my social life is mostly with his friends so I haven't had an occasion to mix with a whole lot of the expats. But there are many many social clubs for expats (kickball starts soon!) and I do plan to go out to some of the events once I have a bit more money. Things have started to get a bit more expensive around here, although obviously much cheaper than metro living in the US or most other places. My savings are not holding out quite as I expected so social things like wine tastings or mini trips are sadly out of the question until I can make some American dollars lol. Anyway let me know what your plans end up being!

[High Plains]

16. Plus, Buenos Aires is a great world city.

And the cost of living is very low for a gringo.

And everybody smokes cigarettes and drinks coffee and eats lots of good meat.

And they like to stay out very late.

And the architecture and the culture and the music...

And now, a step toward a civilized drug policy.

[Warpy]

25. You just cited all my old reasons plus the new one

The city will not fare well as ocean levels rise, but I'm not planning on living that long.

[Solly Mack]

4. Road trip!

[awoke_in_2003]

5. "Road trip!"

I work for a company based in Amsterdam. I really wish I could go on a business trip and, uh, see the tulips and windmills- yeah, that's the ticket.

[liberal N proud]

6. When can we all move

[Javaman]

7. land of the tango high. nt

[Occulus]

8. Cry for us, Argentina n/t

[gulfcoastliberal]

10. K&R - Prohibition doesn't work, it only makes criminals rich.

We need full-scale, across the board legalization of all controlled substances. But the Coke Import Agency doesn't like competition.

Fuck prohibition & fuck the UN directives on drugs.

[Prophet 451]

11. ACTIVIST JUDGES!

They're liberal activists, legislating from the bench, they were probably bribed by Hugo Chavez!

[pattmarty]

12. It'd never work here. What would we do with all those "prison companies"?

All those poor stockholders, and our economy would collapse.

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. Send them all to the Middle East - they got lots of prisons there to run

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I suspect that many of the prisons in the USA are no better than Abu Ghraib or Gitmo.

They would fit right in.

[pattmarty]

15. I never even thought of that, and "over there" they jail children just like the US.

[High Plains]

17. There are many people with a vested interest in keeping prohibition.

Private prison companies.

Prison architects and construction companies.

Prison supply companies.

Prison guard unions.

Law enforcement--fighting the drug war is like having a limitless bank account. Drug use goes down, "We're winning, we need more money;" drug use goes up, "We're losing, we need more money."

The legal profession--not just jobs for judges and prosecutors, but income for defense attorneys, too.

The drug testing industry.

The drug treatment industy (to the extent that treatment is coerced by the legal system).

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. The "War on Drugs" happened shortly after Prohibition of alcohol ended.

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So the DEA or whatever had to find a new "cause" to keep all those people employed . . .

Enter the war on "drugs" - at that time was marijuana

USA has declared "war" on a lot of things, and none have succeeded.

Why is that?

It's sorta simple.

Declare a war on poverty and homelessness

Park the goddamm war-machine and start REALLY helping people.

Just imagine what could be done to help the starving and homeless with the Billions spent on bombs and bullets.

Imagine that, USA actually contributing to better other nation's lives.

Bombs are better than food I guess,

. . . (sigh) . . .

[DCKit]

31. Every time a Republicon declares war on a social problem...

large numbers of people die.

Let's wait until the next administration, please.

[DiverDave]

14. Well, it ain't Costa Rica, but I'll take it.

I'm planning on retiring to Costa Rica, but this gives me much to think about...

How are the prices there?

[Runcible Spoon]

21. cheap, but I wouldn't bet on things staying that way

food has gone up quite a bit, but you can roughly figure a 3:1 peso:dollar equation. However, the dollar's weakening threatens its spending power down here, and there has been some moves for the Argentinian economy to pull away from its ties to the dollar. Housing has also gotten really expensive, at least from the locals' perspective, and rising rents have figured into newstories. However, if you come soon you can still enjoy the cheap living but I wouldn't expect it to last. The Argentinian economy is pretty robust and really has nowhere to go but up. If I had any real money I would be buying up real estate in BA; my fiance's parents bought an apartment here ten years ago for $60,000USD and now comparable places are being appraised at $90,000+. But this is a 3 bedroom 2 full bath unit; you can find 1 bedrooms starting at $20ish. (much cheaper if you want to live in less desirable neighborhoods but personally I would rather take less space in a better neighborhood than vice versa)

[DiverDave]

32. Actually, I'm a country sort of guy

I'd like a quite spot away from large city's.

A small town would do just fine.

[Runcible Spoon]

19. sadly the pot down here SUCKS :*(

If anyone wants to make some serious money they would invest in some hydroponic pot growing. There is a huge market here for some good kindbuds! I'm fairly certain it's not just my experience. Every world traveler I've known plus all the Portenos who are well-traveled also commiserate on the state of the pot down here. If you get out into the country you can find people who grow their own but in BA metro it seems the vast majority of weed is dirty brick crap from Paraguay. maybe now decriminilization will mean a bit more variety :fingerscrossed:

[kineneb]

26. maybe I'll stay home

...in/near the Emerald Triangle (coastal/inland NorCal)...

[High Plains]

28. Paraguayan is the Mexican brick weed of South America

But I heard distant rumors of big kind bud grows on the east slopes of the Andes. And there is a thriving cannabis subculture in BA.

C'mon, portenos: Grow it yourself!

[Blue_Tires]

22. interesting...

i may actually try to visit once they allow blacks into their society :hide:

[Runcible Spoon]

23. yeah that's an ugly spot in Argentina's history...

but it's immigrants in general also, not to mention indios..for example there's a sizeable Korean immigrant population and they've had their share of problems. I'm not a buff on legal history but I seem to remember recent amendments to the constitution as well as rehauls of immigration policies. Today, walking around BA, I see a lot of darker faces and hear Caribbean dialects quite a bit. The Afro Argentinians here are both descendents of slaves as well as more recent free immigrants.

I was really surprised to hear a lot of Portenos say there is no racism here but many seem to have a disdain for Paraguayans, Uruguayans, Bolivians, and Peruvians as backwards and rustic the same way Americans talk about hicks, hayseeds, and white trash. They don't seem to see any sort of racism against skin color per se, but have strong opinions about class differences and indios and AAs are overwhelmingly poorer. It's an interesting dynamic to be certain, and I guess minority groups suffer from a lack of visibility considering the middle class's refusal to believe there is any sort of discrimination based on ethnicity/skin color.

[Blue_Tires]

33. good info there

i was somewhat joking; i'm black and my colleagues who have traveled around south america have always told me to avoid the place...i'm a brazilophile myself, and i know that nation has a history of racial issues as well...

hopefully one day i'll see both

[High Plains]

29. Huh, I don't think Argentina ever had a significant black population.

There weren't any African slaves there as far as I know.

I've never heard anything about not letting blacks in, or even discriminating against them.

What are you referring to?

[Runcible Spoon]

30. yeah I didn't know much either until I looked it up...

http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/argentina.html
http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/GeoRegions/SouthAmerica/argentina01.htm

yeah there was slavery in the 19th C.

[Trillo]

24. Yes.

But with the politicized DOJ, one wonders what the new prosecutorial bogyman would be.

[Vidar]

27. Must be nice to live in a free country. Hats off to Argentina!