Drug legalization in Guatemala.
I don't know if anybody else knows but
the president of Guatemala has issued an initiative to discuss the
possibility of legalization. Now at first I thought that it was a
great plan, after all the government in this Central American country
spends a lot of money fighting “the war on drugs.” This money
could be used to prevent children from going hungry or providing them
with schools to get Guatemala out of the pitiful state in which it
is. But, then I thought if there is actually other countries in
which legalization had worked so we could compare its results to this
country's various idiosyncrasies to see how feasible it would be.
So, everybody knows that drugs are
legal in Holland right? Wrong! Drugs are not legal in the Netherlands
as I found out by a quick search on the internet. In Dutch
legislation there is a difference between what they call hard drugs
(opiates and stimulants, ei. Morphine and cocaine) and soft drugs
(marihuana and hash). Soft drugs carry a penalty of a fine, so if
you are in Amsterdam and carry with you 5 grams of marihuana for
personal use the police can fine you but they never do. This is
something like a relaxed view towards these soft drugs.
OK, so back to square one, where are
drugs legal? Well, according to the internet drug possession is legal
in Portugal. But with just a bit more research you'll find out that
drugs are still illegal in Portugal. The only change, from 2001 was
that now if you carry less than a 10 day supply of your favorite
recreational drug, you don't go to jail. Instead justice makes you
go to rehab and do community service. Good idea, help junkies don't
put them in jail (and if you knew how bad things are in Guatemala's
jails you would also agree with the Portuguese.) Still, no
legalization.
The more I search the more convinced I
am that legalization is very far into the future. With out anything
to compare it to, I'd have to rely on my knowledge of Guatemala's
personality to give my opinion on the matter. We are, after the
before mention meditation, not ready for legalization. But a change
that would improve our policies towards the Portuguese or Dutch model
is something that is worth discussing and implementing.
Further reading and bibliography:
http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/Article/Dutch-Drug-Policy.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_the_Netherlands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_of_drugs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Portugal#Laws_and_regulations
