As goes Argentina…

(From The Latin Americanist)

Argentinean judges continue to take steps toward decriminalize drug possession after federal courts judges threw out drug possession charges in April.

Last week, a group of judges enforced that opinion, ruling on a case of a young man arrested for marijuana possession.

The judges said criminalization will apply “where the possession of narcotics for personal consumption represents a danger for the public health of others.”

Argentina’s minister of justice, security and health, Anibal Fernandez, said the country’s drug laws are a “catastrophe.”

Mexico, like other Latin American nations, traditionally treated narcotics possession as a public heath issue (and “drug related crimes” are still considered “Crimes Against Public Health”). And, in theory anyway, possession for necessary personal use is an affirmative defense in possession cases. But, if you’re arrested for possession, you’ll probably sit in jail longer waiting to prove your stash was for necessary use than you would if you are eventually convicted.

The biggest problem is that “personal use” is never defined. When the Fox Administration attempted to define what was permissible personal use (and actually made drug possession laws stricter, not more lenient), even left-leaning U.S. sources suddenly went batshit about Mexico “legalizing” narcotics.

With the “surge” in the war on (some) narcotics exporters going about as well as the U.S. surge in Iraq (with about the same number of fatalities among Mexicans as the U.S. has had among its own soldiers — not counting mercenaries, “coalition partners”… or Iraqi civilians), some Mexicans are beginning to wonder if that war isn’t increasing demand even in Mexico. Unable to unload their junk in their normal markets, narcotics — like Sinaloa tomatoes — are deep discounted at home. And, maybe it does need to be treated as a public health matter.