(CNN) — The Argentina Supreme Court ruled Tuesday it is unconstitutional to punish an adult for private use of marijuana as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else.
Argentina becomes the second Latin American country in the past four days to allow personal use of a formerly illegal drug.
The seven-member Argentina Supreme Court decision was unanimous, the court’s Web site said.
The case in question involved five young men who were arrested for having a few marijuana cigarettes in their pockets.
Supreme Court Justice Carlos Fayt, who at one time supported laws that make personal use of marijuana illegal, told the state-run Telam news agency that “reality” changed his mind.
Argentina’s action came amid growing momentum in Latin America toward decriminalization.
Mexico enacted a law Friday that decriminalizes possessing low quantities of most drugs, including marijuana, heroin, cocaine and LSD.
Earlier this year, a Brazilian appeals court ruled that possession of drugs for personal use is not illegal.
Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue policy institute in Washington, sees the shift in attitude toward drugs as recognition that current policy is not working.
“It’s all part of a harm-reduction approach,” Hakim said, noting that policy is shifting toward figuring out how to reduce harm to the users and to society.
Remember the old days when those of us in the United States used to look down our noses at Latin America and South America for their corrupt governments and lack of personal freedom? Kinda like we used to make fun of the anti-democratic Soviet Union and their “czars”.
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While it is encouraging to see laws change in our favor (somewhat), I can’t help thinking how decrim only helps to support the massive efforts of the cartels who are the ones profitting from it. If you’re not allowed to grow your own, the only source available to many are the dealers working for the cartels. It is a hollow victory when lives of innocent people are wasted in order to support the mafia-like activities of these vicious organizations. The ONLY answer is making it legal to truck down to the local weed store to purchase from a regulated, taxed, and safe source.
Like I needed another reason to go and see those amazingly beautiful Argentinian women!
I can’t wait for their “cannababes” posters…
i’m so proud of my country XD it’s also really really cheap to buy weed over there. In my hometown, you can get what yo get here for e 20 for just 5 argetinian pesos, wich is about 2 dollars.
[...] Argentina Supreme Court decriminalizes marijuana today [...]
cry for me from here to awesome Argentina….
Only strange thing I noted was the reference to the pole finding 29% of Americans in favor of legalizing. Of the recent polls I’ve seen, it’s been around 40% to 55%, a significant difference.
America… land of the free… home of the brave. Ha.
Land of the well-regulated and home of the scared out of their minds.
I never thought about it but it does make sense that the first dominoes to fall would be outside the country. Here come the dominoes.
In Russ’s article about the Church of Zion’s religious right to the herb, he made mention that no-one had tried that legalization argument with the Supreme Court. Is that true for any cases? Has the case for personal use of Cannabis ever been before the Supreme Court?
Wonderful. My latin american brothers down south can now smoke freely!
Go Mexico! Go Argentina! Go Brazil! Go Latin America!