Buenos Aires, Aug 26 (EFE) Criminal penalties for possession of drugs for personal use are unconstitutional, Argentina’s Supreme Court has ruled, overturning the convictions of five people who were arrested with several marijuana joints.
In a unanimous decision, the judges upheld the sentences of those who sold the marijuana and urged all elements of government to embrace the battle against drug trafficking as “a policy of state”.
The court called on politicians to “adopt preventive health measures, with information and education to dissuade people from (drug) consumption, focussed, above all, on the most vulnerable groups, especially minors”.
The judges based their ruling on the Argentine Constitution, which establishes — they said — that “each adult individual is sovereign to make free decisions about the lifestyle he or she desires without the state’s being able to interfere in that ambit”.
“It is not acceptable to penalise private conduct that does not cause danger or damage to third parties,” the decision said.
Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez said Tuesday’s ruling was “the most the court can do”, since it is up to Congress to amend the drug laws in a more fundamental way, as advocated by the administration of President Cristina Fernandez.
The Fernandez government seeks to combine a fairly broad decriminalisation of drug possession and consumption in favour of a focus on the illicit trade.
A joint study by the association Intercambios and the University of Buenos Aires found that more than 70 percent of the drug cases in Argentine courts involve simple possession for personal use.
