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 Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc called on the country's Supreme Court to imitate Argentina and decriminalize possession of drugs by adults for personal consumption.
"We beat Argentina 3 to 1 in the World Cup qualifiers but in other issues we are loosing and bad. In Argentina judges decriminalized the use of marijuana", said Mind during a Sunday visit to the ecologic park Chapada dos Veadeiros in the central state of Goiás.
"This is a match we are losing with the Argentines," insisted the minister during an open day at the park which included musical shows.
Last August 25th the Argentine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional criminalizing adults in possession of a minimum quantity of marijuana for personal use and with no risk for third parties, thus giving preference to the right to privacy.
The Supreme Court ruling also called on the political establishment to agree on a state policy on drugs to combat the illicit trafficking of narcotics and adopt preventive health and educational measures.
The ruling however did not decriminalize the traffic or trading of drugs and the suppliers involved in the lead case of the five youngsters caught with marijuana - and later released - have been jailed.
The message from the Argentine court is quite clear: having drugs in small quantities, with no ostentations or risk for third parties, is a case of individual privacy, a personal issue and therefore not punishable.
Mexico also passed similar legislation last month and there's a strong move along the Latinamerican continent to change the emphasis on the drugs war.
Several former Latinamerican presidents (conservatives and liberals) have spoken openly in favor of a certain degree of consumption legalization and the decisions in Argentina and Mexico point in that direction.
Brazil could be the next country to join the club, and Minc's comments could be interpreted as trial balloons.
Mercopress
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Debaters debate the two wars as if Nixon’s civil war on Woodstock Nation didn’t yet run amok. One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights or to Cuba for political prisoners. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, radicals, and non-whites under banner of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as lives are flushed down expensive tubes. There’s trouble on the border. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. God didn’t screw up. Canadian Marc Emery sold seeds that enable American farmers to outcompete cartels with superior domestic herb. He is being extradited to prison, for doing what government wishes it could do, reduce demand for Mexican.
The constitutionality of the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) derives from an interstate commerce clause. Only by this authority does it reincarnate Al Capone, endanger homeland security, and throw good money after bad. Official policy is to eradicate, not tax, the number-one cash crop in the land. America rejected prohibition, but it’s back. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment. Father, forgive those who make it their business to know not what they do.
Nixon promised that the Schafer Commission would support the criminalization of his enemies, but it didn’t. No matter, the witch-hunt was on. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA halted all research and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use, period.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. Denial of entheogen sacrament to any American, for mediation of communion with his or her maker, precludes free exercise of religious liberty.
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law must hold that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers decreed that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration.