Pubdate: Mon, 27 May 2013
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2013 The Detroit News
Contact:  http://www.detroitnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Andres Oppenheimer
Note: Andres Oppenheimer reports on Latin America for the Miami Herald

LATIN AMERICA: DECRIMINALIZE POT

Latin American presidents who support decriminalization of marijuana 
won a big diplomatic victory in recent days when the 34-country 
Organization of American States issued a report that considers that 
option as one of several policies that might help reduce the region's 
drug-related violence.

The 400-page OAS report, titled The Drug Problem in the Americas, had 
been commissioned by Latin American countries at last year's Summit 
of the Americas attended by President Barack Obama in Cartagena.

While it doesn't make recommendations, it cites decriminalization of 
marijuana as one of several policy options that countries might 
adopt, in effect putting the option on the table. It is believed to 
be the first time that an international organization considers 
decriminalization of marijuana use as a possible drug policy.

The report calls for "greater flexibility" in anti-drug policies, and 
notes there are "trends that lead toward the decriminalization or 
legalization of the production, sale and use of marijuana."

Conversely, decriminalizing or legalizing other drugs, such as 
cocaine, wouldn't be a good idea, it says. While marijuana is not 
more harmful than alcohol or tobacco, it says other drugs are.

In an interview, OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told me 
that the report merely presents scenarios, and "tries not to lean 
toward any particular option." But he conceded there is general 
agreement among experts who participated in the study on the need to 
treat illicit drugs as a health problem, rather than as a 
law-enforcement problem.

"If a person is ill, you don't throw that person in jail," Insulza 
told me. "That person needs a special treatment, a treatment for 
somebody who has a serious addiction that must be overcome."

The OAS report comes after several Latin American presidents, 
including those of Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Uruguay, have 
called for changes in the U.S.-backed "war on drugs" that has left 
tens of thousands of dead in recent years. The OAS report is a step 
forward. There is little doubt that the U.S. war on drugs is not 
working. Alternatives must be found.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom