Smalltime Users and Dealers Targeted by Argentina Drug "Defederalization" Bill

On Wednesday night, the Argentina Senate approved a bill that shifts most drug enforcement in the country from the federal authorities to those on the state and local levels. While the measure reflects the frustration at the unwinnable nature of US-imposed prohibitionist drug policies, and the over-burdened Argentine judicial system, the legislation was passed for all the wrong reasons, and if passed now by the House, will bring an all-out assault on smalltime drug users and dealers... The legislation, approved by a vote of 48 senators in favor to five opposed, would, according to drug policy reformers Silvia Inchaurraga and Gustavo Hurtado of the Argentina Harm Reduction Association (ARDA, in its Spanish initials), expand "the demonizing discourse on drugs, the assimilation of the figures of the 'addict' with that of the 'delinquent,' the imprisonment and persecution of users, the expulsion of drug abusers from the health system, political and judicial collaboration with large narco-traffickers and money launderers, and the corruption at all levels of the police and judiciary."

"It will bring no benefits to the fight against narco-trafficking," the ARDA leaders said. "Instead, it will further aggravate the incapacity of the Argentine State to respond effectively with prevention and help for drug addicts."

Judge Lucilia Larrandart told Senators that the measure would bring widespread corruption to already troubled police agencies on the state (provincial) level. The law, according to ARDA, would "facilitate the spread of extortion by state governments and their police against opposition political forces, subjecting Argentine society to the sad spectacle of 'planted' evidence" on the accused.

Ironically, the measure is a reaction to greater consciousness among judges of the federal judiciary who have largely embraced the progressive concept that smalltime drug users and dealers are better treated as a public health problem than as a matter for criminal courts.

ARDA called upon members of the lower House of Congress to reject the measure.

Narco News will continue to follow and report the path of this legislation and the efforts to stop it.