translated from Spanish: Minister proposes to regulate cannabis use in Argentina

Buenos Aires.- The new Argentine government announced on Tuesday that it evaluates regulate through a new law the consumption and self-cultivation of cannabis, in what would represent a historic change in the field of drugs in the South American country. Security Minister Sabina Frederic spoke in favor of “regulating the cultivation for consumption and regulating that there may be a number of plants that can be grown for consumption.”

We believe that there needs to be a debate in that regard,” she said in statements to Radio Metro of Buenos Aires.

Frederic remarked that the debate “was already raised” by the new Argentine president, the Peronist Alberto Fernández, who took office on December 10th.” First you have to start with the experience of regulating cannabis use, including production for consumption, and in any case then see what we do with the other drugs. It seems to me that Argentina is not a country that is prepared for the decriminalization of the other,” he said. The head of the area thus took distance from the proposal made on Monday by the Minister of Security of the province of Buenos Aires, Sergio Berni, about studying the legalization of consumption and the marketing of all kinds of drugs. The Minister called for the criteria between the various national government and provinces on “the persecution of consumers and holders” of narcotics both among the various distributions of the national government and between the provinces. Following the adoption in many Argentine provinces of the narcotics law, cases of drug use and possession moved from federal to provincial justice and “that increased the prison population in most of the provinces that adhered,” he said Frederic.La head of the area warned that Argentina was going through a prison emergency because of the overcrowding of criminals. In addition, about 50% of inmates in Argentine prisons do not yet have a conviction, frederic added that “there are many people who are detained for consumption, who are actually considered micro-traffickers.” We must have clear criteria between the Ministries of Justice and Security about what we are going to consider possession for consumption and what we will consider possession for drug trafficking. This is key and we have to do it relatively soon because in that area of ambiguity the police act with discretion and the brake ends up being the judiciary but with a huge cost of prosecution, paperwork and harassment,” stressed the minister of Seguridad.Frederic took as an example the so-called “Arriola ruling” of the Supreme Court of Justice, which in 2009 ruled in favor of a person detained for marijuana use and ordered his release. The ruling of the highest court established that the consumption of narcotics in the private sphere without the ostentation of third parties is protected by the National Constitution.” We have to go down that path with a law,” proposed the Minister of Security, who plans to convene a team of experts in January who have studied the cases of Canada, some US states and Uruguay to “think of an Argentine model.” The cost to the State of the Pursuit of Marijuana Trafficking is very high and many of us know that the damage that marijuana in many cases causes is even less than that produced by alcohol,” argued the head of the Security portfolio. 

Original source in Spanish