Repression Will Win Out Over Legalization at Summit of the Americas (El Carabobeno, Venezuela)
“This approach will be adopted because it is supported by the greatest
world power, which pursues policies that on the outside are repressive, but domestically
are benign toward its own consumers and traffickers; and second, due to the
hypocritical support of authoritarian countries, whose governments have
compromised political morality with their scandalous ties to drug trafficking.”
Colombian police converse in front of the logo for the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Cartegena, Colombia, April 11. President Obama and 33 other leaders from Latin America are beginning to converge on the city to attend the event from April 14-15.
The Summit of the Americas [April 14, 15] will reconsider the
issues surrounding drug decriminalization. This rethink will center on two
positions:
a) The punitive and prohibitionist position, based on a repressive
legal code that violates the fundamental principles of criminal law and due
process. This is based on the need to watch over the health and morality of
society. This thesis is mainly supported by the United States, which remains
the largest consumer [of drugs] in the world, but nevertheless aims to deal with
the problem by attacking external supply. The so called “war on sources,” which
was initiated by President Reagan and continued by Bush, has seen particular
application in Latin America.
Paradoxically, Venezuela has been the best pupil of this
repressive and prohibitionist policy, going after drug consumers and small-time
smugglers, drug peddlers and “mules.” In our country, these people have been vilified
to the point that one can safely say that large numbers of innocents have been
put on trial and punished for such offenses. This position has failed worldwide,
since every day the production and consumption of drugs increases.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
b) The decriminalization and anti-prohibition thesis,
which enjoys universal academic support. It is defended in the United
States by Albert Reiss; in Europe by abolitionist LoukHulsman, Alessandro Baratta
and other founders of critical criminology in continental Europe; In Latin
America, supporters include [Argentine Supreme Court Justice] Raul Zaffaroni, Mauricio Martínez,
[Colombian prosecutor] Emiro Sandoval Huertas, politicians like [former President] Cardozo of
Brazil; and [President] Santos of Colombia.
In Venezuela there is globally influential [criminologist] Rosa Del Olmo as well as [criminologist and former governor] Lolita Aniyar de Castro, Jorge Rossel
and a majority of criminological and legal institutes at our universities. This
thesis does not involve total abolition, but rather a progressive
decriminalization, or a kind of “controlled legalization.”
The approach can be summarized in the following points:
1. It must be analyzed from a socio-political and
socio-economic perspective, not applied to any individual country. 2. The decriminalization
of consumption. 3. The decriminalization of possession for personal or group
use. 4. The abolition of criminalizing mere suspicion, which occurs when “preparatory
acts” are considered criminal, such as possession of raw materials. This is
something that happens a lot in Venezuela with urea, an essential agricultural
product [fertilizer]. 5. Ranking punishments for drug trafficking based on the
type of drug. This thesis assumes severe criminal punishments for major
traffickers and large mafias that violate government-established standards of drug
production, drug control and drug distribution.
The Summit of the Americas will undoubtedly adopt the first
position, because it is supported by the greatest world power, which pursues
policies that on the outside are repressive, but domestically are benign toward
its own consumers and traffickers. That is to say nothing of the political and
military reasons for such behavior. Secondly, it will be due to the
hypocritical support of authoritarian countries, whose governments have
compromised political morality with their scandalous ties to drug trafficking.
Such will be the outcome of the discussion on drugs during the Summit of the
Americas.
