Latin America Eases Drug Laws
Argentina’s Pesident Cristina Fernández de Kirchner would like to decriminalize personal use of illicit substances, which would allow Argentina to join other countries which have liberal drug policies. “I don’t like it when people condemn someone who has an addiction as if he were a criminal, as if he were a person who should be persecuted,” she said. “The ones that should be persecuted are the ones who sell the substances, who give it away, who traffic in it.”
Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico have also recently moved to decriminalize small-scale possession for personal use. Cocaine and ecstasy are widely used by middle and upper-class young people, especially at electronic musical events and raves, which can go on for days at a time. Argentina has the highest per capita use of cocaine in the Americas after the United States, according to a 2006 United Nations survey.
One reason for the change in drug laws in Latin America is the overcrowding of prisons with individuals convicted only of possessing or using drugs. Laws still exist to incarcerate those who sell or distribute drugs. Opponents to liberalizing drug laws claim that one result is that teenagers are more likely to use drugs.
Punishment for distribution of illegal drugs can lead to difficulty interpreting laws, especially in Brazil, where prison sentences for users has been eliminated in favor of treatment or community service. But well-to-do young people sometimes cannot resist the temptation to travel to Holland to buy ecstasy, which is legal and cheap there. Back home, they may simply decide to share with a few friends, however, there is also the temptation to sell it, since the price in Brazil is about 50 times what they paid.
Interestingly, Brazil’s drug laws protect anyone with a university degree, allowing those convicted of drug dealing to serve their time in special prisons. However, lacking even a single credit for a degree means serving time among murders and rapists. What’s more, the maximum sentence for drug dealing is 8 to 20 years in Brazil while the sentence for murder is 6 to 20 years.
It’s no surprise that Brazilian police are able to extract huge sums of money in bribes in exchange for not charging those caught with ecstasy as drug dealers. Wealthy parents of young people who’ve been apprehended are eager to pay whatever is asked. The less affluent can end up serving sentences harsher sentences than murderers.
Complete articles on drug uses and penalties in Argentina and in Brazil appeared in The New York Times, February 15, 2009.