Should marijuana be legalized for recreational use? (Part 3)

[luiz]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this already, but yesterday Argentina legalized marijuana for personal use!

Hooray for freedom!

Edit: I predict a surge of tourism in Buenos Aires

 

[Munch]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this already, but yesterday Argentina legalized marijuana for personal use!

Hooray for freedom!

Edit: I predict a surge of tourism in Buenos Aires

Congratulations!

 

[Formaldehyde]

It is no longer a 2-year prison sentence for simple possession... Instead, the government will now apparently start treating them as "addicts".

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090826_In_the_World.html

The decision doesn't legalize drug possession outright. But Argentina's cabinet chief favors keeping drug addicts out of the justice system, and was waiting for the ruling before forwarding a proposed law to Congress.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8221599.stm

The move has been criticised by some campaign groups who say it will encourage damaging behaviour and lead to health problems.

"There will be an increase in the drug trade and the people that fall into addiction will not, unfortunately, access treatment," Claudio Izaguirre, director of the Argentine Anti-drugs Association told Reuters.

"My country doesn't have the necessary health coverage for what will happen," he said.

But it also marks a shift a dramatic regional shift to the decades-old US-backed policy of running repressive military-style wars on the drug trade, she adds.

Well, at least that last part is more good news...

 

[Elta]

Don't know if anyone mentioned this already, but yesterday Argentina legalized marijuana for personal use!

State, province, prefecture and country, we slowly march closer and closer to common sense laws

 

[BasketCase]

Careful, Elta.

Prohibition was considered "common sense" when it was enacted, and (for a while) had widespread support for American voters.

Ten years from now, after marijuana use becomes a national epidemic, Argentina might return to its senses and ban the stuff again. But that's a definite maybe.

A century or so ago, cocaine and morphine were not only legal in the U.S., but they were considered beneficial. We know how that ended. The same thing will happen again. It's just a question of when and with which drugs, and common sense has nothing to do with whether it will happen (hell, if President Bush could get RE-elected, anything is possible!)

 

[ParadigmShifter]

For Flintoff's sake.

How exactly did it end when cocaine and morphine were illegal?

Got any crime figures for way back when so we can compare them to today's?

 

[Elta]

BC - Common sense is in rhetoric of the beholder.

 

[negZero]

BasketCase you should go look up what the legal definition of common sense is, its pretty damn low.

 

[Masada]

Prohibition was considered "common sense" when it was enacted, and (for a while) had widespread support for American voters.

And yet, they didn't support its reenactment after:

Ten seventy years from now, after marijuana devil's drink use becomes a national epidemic, Argentina America might return to its senses and ban the stuff again. But that's a definite maybe.