ARGENTINA EASES RULES ON MARIJUANA

BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina's Supreme Court largely decriminalized
possession of small quantities of marijuana, part of a Latin American
trend toward easing sanctions on personal drug use.

The unanimous ruling struck down a 1989 Argentine law that dictated
prison sentences of up to two years for drug possession. The case
overturns the convictions of five young men, swept up in a
trafficking investigation, for possession of between one and three
marijuana cigarettes each.

The Argentine ruling comes as many countries in the region are trying
to shift their drug-enforcement focus to traffickers rather than
consumers. Last week Mexico, which is in the midst of a battle with
sophisticated drug gangs that has claimed thousands of lives,
decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Brazil
and Ecuador are among other Latin American countries that have moved
in recent years to ease penalties against small-scale possession.

Argentina has decriminalized possession of small amounts of
marijuana. Above, a gardener in Buenos Aires with a hemp plant.
Argentina marijuana Argentina marijuana

In Argentina, the drug debate has played out amid a growing problem
of addiction to paco, a cheap, smokable cocaine derivative. Paco has
swept through Argentine barrios the way crack once did in the U.S.

Argentina's leftist president, Cristina Kirchner, has spoken out in
principle in favor of decriminalization policies, calling for greater
focus on rehabilitation of addicts and law-enforcement action against
trafficking networks. The government has been studying a legislative
overhaul of drug laws, which should be facilitated by the Supreme Court ruling.

The Supreme Court decision could be more broadly interpreted by lower
courts to sanction possession for personal use of other drugs besides
marijuana, says Alejandro Corda, a lawyer for Intercambios, a
nongovernmental group in Buenos Aires specializing in drug policy. He
says the 1989 law that the ruling overturned doesn't mention specific
types of drugs that are banned.

The Argentine court ruling was less sweeping than some
decriminalization advocates had sought, however. The court sanctioned
possession only in cases where third parties or minors aren't
affected. Analysts said it was significant that the ruling didn't
overturn the sentences against the dealers who had sold the men the marijuana.

On Tuesday, the government's cabinet chief, Anibal Fernandez, hailed
the Supreme Court for bringing to an end "the repressive policy that
the Nixon administration invented" in the U.S. He said the military
government that ruled Argentina in the 1970s and part of the 1980s
had readily followed Washington's lead in establishing punitive
policies that haven't "reduced a single hectare of crops in any place
in the world."

Argentina's decriminalization push has drawn fierce criticism from
conservative politicians, as well as from the Roman Catholic Church.
"It's necessary to make access and consumption more difficult, not to
facilitate it," said Jorge Lozano, a Catholic bishop. "The ruling can
be read as saying everything is fine, and that's a harmful message."