I came across this letter to an editor I really dig and thought it might be informative.

Mikki Norris <mikki@hr95.org>:

Dear ARO Friends,

Chris Conrad and I have been in Argentina doing some networking, press, a
national TV show, and conferences sponsored by some cannabis activists (in
Rosario, Cordoba, and tomorrow in Buenos Aires), aside from trying to fit in a
little vacationing for the last two weeks. We have one week left here.

I haven't seen reports of it on ARO, but this past weekend, the newspapers were
filled with stories about how the Argentine Supreme Court has voted that the
current policy that arrests people for personal possession of drugs is
unconstitutional, and that they should return to the policy of decriminalization
of personal use that they had in 1986. Next, the legislature will have to act on
it. We hear that President Christina Kirchner is in favor of this change. In
addition, we hear that Argentine delegation to the UN forum in Vienna in March
is interested in pressing for an international drug strategy based on human
rights and harm reduction (the NGO position). We will see what happens, but it
is promising news.

Maybe, South America will lead the way on drug policy as other countries here
have also decriminalized personal use. Meanwhile, we are doing our best to
educate them on the subject of medical marijuana, and also about the failed US
Drug War that we urge them not to follow for our human rights violations. The
activists here are hungry for Spanish language materials on the subject. Chris'
book, Cannabis para la salud, was published here about 10 years ago, but they
can't seem to get it any longer. We will see what we can do to fix that.

We had an inspiring conversation with one of the Mothers of the Disappeared, a
94-year old social justice worker, who works everyday for the betterment of the
poor (in the name of the disappeared) and who urged us to continue working for
our cause, as she recognized that the imprisonment of drug offenders is another
form of repression and a worthy issue. She was amazing.

Anyway, we wish you all a feliz ano nuevo de Argentina!

Mikki Norris

Cannabis Consumers Campaign
Human Rights and the Drug War
West Coast Leaf

All the drug warrior jackasses are accomplishing is to get the rest of the whole world to disrespect us for being psychotic jackasses who like to hurt people when you say the word, "dope" in my own opinion. I wish it weren't so... but who cares about that if you are a big shot congressass I write to?