I have seen that both Columbia and Argentinas Supreme Courts…

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/600/colombia_supreme_court_drug_possession_not_crime
describes the Colombia case as follows:
Upholding a 1994 ruling from the country's Constitutional Court, Colombia's Supreme Court has ruled that possession of illegal drugs for personal use is not a crime. The ruling came in the case of Ancizar Jaramillo Quintero, who had been arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for the possession of 1.3 grams of cocaine. The court threw out his conviction in July and ordered his immediate release.

In its opinion in the case (available here in Spanish), the court held that drug addiction is a disease, not a vice, and should be treated accordingly. Drug use "generates in a person problems of addiction and slavery that turn one into a sick, compulsive individual deserving of therapeutic medical treatment instead of a punishment," the judges said.

The court also invoked a principal that could be likened to "no harm, no foul." "In the exercise of his personal and private rights, the accused did not harm others," so his conduct "cannot be the object of any punishment," the opinion stated.


If the Senate approves the measure, it will mean that the Colombian government is out of step not only with its own judiciary, but increasingly, with the rest of Latin America. Mexico decriminalized drug possession last month, and a few days later, the Argentine Supreme Court issued a decision decriminalizing marijuana possession on the spot and calling into question the criminalization of possession of any drug for personal use. Brazil, Ecuador, and Uruguay are headed down similar paths.

Until at least 1900 American law never challenged the idea that people had the right to self medicate with herbs or drugs. At that time, cannabis, laudanum and cocaine were available without a prescription.

There is a 4 part history series called Illegal drugs and how they got that way, parts of which are on you tube, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQlk01sxO_E

Chapters 4 and 5 of The Emperor Wears No Clothes covers the history of cannabis prohibition, see
http://www.jackherer.com/chapter04.html
http://www.jackherer.com/chapter05.html

I have not read the Argentine or Brazilian court opinions and do not know exactly what provisions of their laws or constitutions were involved.

But I believe the free exercise of religion clause in the First Amendment gives people the right to self medicate as their pagan ancestors did for millennia.

I am an attorney in California who is so enthralled with the law that I do homework questions sometimes. You asked for a lawyer to answer this, so you got one.

There were a lot of historical accidents that led to the current state of the laws. The alcohol lobby in the US has always been immensely powerful. The AMA told Congress NOT to make marijuana illegal but the USA has had a proven track record of routinely placing ideology ahead of national interest and the present prohibition of cannabis and other substances is just one more example of that.

How is it in our national interest to jail responsible recreational users? Oh, the prison guard unions like having more power and the more prisoners there are, the more power they gain. There is a prison industrial complex that thrives on prohibition.

Seeing how well alcohol prohibition worked out for the US, I hope it is a matter of time until cannabis prohibition ends. And, hopefully, eventually drug prohibition.

Edited by Research Expert on 4/14/2010 at 10:15 AM EST