Venezuela moving to decriminalize drug possession

[pescao]

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=14538

Posted: Sunday, January 18, 2004
By: VHeadline.com Reporters

Drug War Chronicle: Venezuela moving to decriminalize drug possession

Drug War Chronicle StoptheDrugWar.org reports that "the embattled government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias is moving to decriminalize drug possession. But contrary to some reports circulating on drug reform email lists, decriminalization in Venezuela is by no means a done deal. The opposition newspaper El Universal reported Tuesday that, as part of its sweeping reform of the country's penal code, the Chavez government will include the decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use. The proposed reform would also address penalties for drug-trafficking and manufacture, creating a system of sentences based on weight rather than the current system, which subjects all trafficking and manufacturing crimes to the same harsh set of sentences.

Under the proposed new Article 383 of the penal code "A personal dose would be understood to be the quantity of the drug that does not exceed the average five-day personal consumption; and a maintenance (or supply) dose would be the quantity of the drug used by the average person (as determined by experts) for no more than 10 days."

Under the article, people caught with "personal dose" or "maintenance dose" amounts of illegal drugs will face no criminal sanction. The benchmarks for those doses have not yet been set. Benchmarks for new, graduated penalties for trafficking and manufacturing offenses have been set:

...

Venezuelan penologist Jose Luis Tamayo told El Universal that changes in drug trafficking penalties are needed to ensure justice in sentencing. The reform "would correct a certain current injustice, since today those who traffic drugs in large quantities (for example, a tonne of cocaine) are punished with the same sentence as those who traffic in small quantities (for example, 10 grams of cocaine) ... in this manner, the greater or lesser the quantity of the drug detected in each case would be punished in a proportional manner."

...

[pescao]

1. Anti-Drug Czaress: draft reform bill could legalize drugs in Venezuela

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=14543

Posted: Sunday, January 18, 2004
By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Anti-Drug Czaress: draft reform bill could legalize drugs in Venezuela

Anti-Drugs Czaress Mildred Camero has broken silence and spoken out against a Criminal Code reform proposal launched by a committee headed by Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) magistrate, Alejandro Angulo Fontiveros regarding drug-related offenses.

Judge Camero, who has been keeping a low media profile, says illegal drugs is a transnational crime and Angulo Fontiveros' proposal could be interpreted abroad as legalizing drug-taking in Venezuela.

In Criminal Code Article 384 the reformed wording, Camero claims, implies that one cannot be penalized for acquiring narcotic substances for personal use ... "the verb employed 'acquired' could be interpreted as meaning that Venezuela is legalizing the purchase and sale of drugs."

Furthermore, Camero contends that it could be understood that one can sell to people that the law allows to buy a dose ... "one is legally selling that person his dosage ... the international community could penalize Venezuela by withdrawing aid to fight narco-trafficking."

...

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Systematic Chaos]

6. I would just love to hear your arguments...

AGAINST the decriminalization of drugs. Tell us, what IS the secret?

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[daleo]

3. Time to dust off the War on Drugs rhetoric

Mix it up with War on Terrorism, and Bushco can try another coup in Venezuela. Maybe even an invasion, if the coup fails again.

[pescao]

4. indeed

from original piece:

The move toward decriminalization of drug possession will likely provide even more ammunition for the Chavez demonization campaign emanating from the White House, the State Department, and more shadowy agencies. Chavez is already well-hated by the conservative ideologues, such as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, a former aide to Senator Jesse Helms, and Bush's special envoy to the region Otto Reich, who cut his teeth helping craft the Reagan administration's wars in Central America in the 1980s.

btw, i met met chavez today in miraflores on alo presidente! lots of nice coffee, and fresh strawberry juice at the end. also, he is a total maestro. out on a terrace, a few military milling around (and the d00dz with bullet-proof briefcases). some christian missionaries in the audience and the guy who started SOA-watch. will post some pix soonish. am interviewing greg wilpert tomorrow (any questions for him?) pesc xxx

[Valjean]

10. No Kidding

I would recommend that Chavez delay this until after the US election. Bush is looking for another helpless country to invade and Venezuela is ripe for the pickings.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

11. Yup and it's got Oil too

:scared:

[DUreader]

5. Wow, Pescao, check this: "BEAUTIFUL LOSERS HAVE BUYER'S REMORSE "

This is a Great! Definitely Worth Watching!


http://www.bigleftoutside.com/archives/000316.php#more


snip

Mr. Borden, and his wage slave "editor," Mr. Philip Smith (somebody, please, offer Phil more money to occupy a more dignified
sinecure… he'll take it, I opine, to jump ship in a New York minute… such is the mercenary spirit among too many NGO
bureaucrats… although this does not in any way constitute a job recommendation by me…), the other day, sent out an email
saying that, "contrary to some reports circulating on drug reform email lists, decriminalization in Venezuela is by no means a done
deal."

Such is the inside-the-beltway mentality of people who have no real constituency, who represent no one, who have ruined their
own reputations in their failed attempts to colonize Latin American drug policy movements, who can only see events in other lands
through Washington rules, and through gringo preconceptions, and whose grasp of the Spanish language -and Latin America's
diverse cultures, which goes way beyond language - is either nonexistent or struggling at best.

First of all, there were not "some reports" that made the claim that they today attack - Venezuela's "done deal" of drug policy
reform - that they refute without crediting the supposedly refuted source (first sign, kind readers, that they are not too confident in
their refutation). There was only one source of that story in English: The BigLeftOutside blog. Your first clue is that they failed to
cite their source.

I signed my name to that story! I stand behind it! Why don't they cite the source? Well, it comes down to two motives:
dishonesty… and fear of the scrutiny that would - and does now - follow.

They claim that the Venezuela Drug Decriminalization Reform is not a done deal? Oh, really? Have the bureaucrats of this gringa
organization looked at the history of the past six years in Venezuela? Do they have the slightest clue?


snip

much more

[pescao]

8. this is a great story!

http://www.bigleftoutside.com/archives/000313.php

Venezuela Decriminalizes Drug Possession

Today's neo-libertarians, if they truly believe what they claim to believe about freedom, really need to take a second look at Venezuela and it's president Hugo Chávez.

The democratically-elected government of Venezuela has survived attempted coups - military, economic, and mediatic - and keeps moving forward with the most sweeping reforms and advances in democracy and human rights in the hemisphere today.

The latest: a reform of the penal code that, while increasing penalties for drug traffickers like every other country, has just decriminalized possession. According to the oligarch's daily El Universal, which leads its report in a panic over the reform's simultaneous legalization of abortion and euthanasia, here's what the new law does for drug users:

"As personal dose for consumption, the (allowable) quantity of the drug substance is extended to that which is necessary for average individual consumption for no more than five days; and as a provisional dose, the quantity of the substance that is employed for average individual consumption (according to forensics experts) for no more than ten days."

In sum, the drug addict or user no longer faces prison or penalty in Venezuela if he possesses small amounts of his drug of choice (specifically mentioned by the law are marijuana, hashish, cocaine and its derivatives, opium and its derivatives, and synthetic drugs).

This is truly revolutionary. How and why did it happen? This giant step for drug policy reform and human freedom in this hemisphere happened because Venezuelan democracy was defended and US-backed coups were defeated. This historic development is a discrediting knockout blow to all the hysterical accusers who claimed that the government of Hugo Chávez would somehow become "authoritarian" simply because he and the Venezuelan majority don't agree that "the market" should govern their land.

...

another view here! http://www.eluniversal.com/2004/01/13/13105A.shtml

[Beaker]

9. It's going to be a huge boon for their tourism industry-

unfortunately, some of the first "tourists" will probably be lots and lots of U.S. Marines...
nationalizing industry, selling oil to Castro, decriminalizing drugs...maybe Chavez should just send the Lil'Dictator a written invitation to invade.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Thanks for the news! Here's another interesting step:

Country May Decriminalize Theft for the Hungry
Fri January 16, 2004 09:16 AM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Thou shalt not steal, say the Ten Commandments, but it might eventually no longer apply if you are starving in Venezuela.
The poor, oil-rich nation is considering decriminalizing the theft of food and medicine in cases where a thief is motivated by extreme hunger or need.

Supreme Court Judge Alejandro Angulo Fontiveros told Reuters on Wednesday that the so-called "famine theft" clause should be part of a broad penal code reform measure for humanitarian reasons.

"This is a guide for judges to avoid injustice," said Fontiveros, who is in charge of drafting the reforms. "They lock up for years a poor person who lives in atrocious misery and what they need is medicine."
(snip/...)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=4140340


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is going to get some anal right-wing extremists foaming at the mouth, wouldn't you think?

[pop goes the weasel]

13. Oh my

How dare the government in Venezuela tell the poor to go ahead and take from the rich what the rich ought to be giving in generosity of spirit. Why, now the poor will think they are actually entitled to live!

(that was sarcasm, in case anyone can't tell)

I like Chavez, if for no other reason than that he irritates Bushco.