Should Latin American countries legalize marijuana?

Not only should Latin American countries legalize marijuana, the US should legalize drugs, starting with marijuana. If we can learn anything from history, and comparing the prohibition period to the legalizing marijuana topic, it would be common sense to see how legalizing marijuana can be much more beneficial for the economy, the so-called-war on drugs, etc. Not to mention keeping it illegal is just another way for the government to tell us what to do and how to live our lives.

Not only should Latin American countries legalize marijuana, the US should legalize drugs, starting with marijuana. If we can learn anything from history, and comparing the prohibition period to the legalizing marijuana topic, it would be common sense to see how legalizing marijuana can be much more beneficial for the economy, the so-called-war on drugs, etc. Not to mention keeping it illegal is just another way for the government to tell us what to do and how to live our lives.

While personal liberties are important and in principle it would seem that legalizing marijuana would be an important step in a more free society direction, the repercussions of such policy need to be carefully considered - particularly in a region like Latin America.

Today, the middle and upper class people that want to use Marijuana can definitely do it and they are not penalized or prosecuted for that at all - so the net effect on that part of the population would be negligible.

On the contrary, the more at-risk part of the population, those kids that do not study, do not work - a big chunk of the Latin American youth today, would be presented with a very accesible, low cost, socially accepted, marketed, etc etc passtime. It would cost significantly less than today and its usage would skyrocket - not something we want to encourage today.

I agree with Pablo Osinaga's point. It's difficult to make an opinion, it's a subject that has many view points. But here we go - for adults, I would legalize. But at the price of putting in place stronger penalties than existing ones to those that are related to minors in its consumption in any way. Not sure whether that's achiveable, but definitely could be taken as a vision.

I do not agree with the premise that it would sky rocket. Already in the US I would say a big majority of the population uses marijuana, even when compared to other countries with more laxed laws (Netherlands).

Unfortunately that fear isn't supported in the data for countries where drugs were legalized. Portugal recently experienced this without the major adverse effects you cite as a concern.

I disagree, because with alcohol, a similarly low-risk (doesn't completely destroy one's body) drug available. Legalization of Marijuana on the other hand would enable planting and selling the product legally, taking away a significant revenue stream that provides huge up-selling opportunities for organized crime organizations.

There's an important difference between decriminalization (not being prosecuted for owning small amounts of the drug) and legalization (having production and sales a completely legal, regulateable business). Decriminalization is a great way if the only goal is to protect civil liberties. If the question is seen in the context of the War on Drugs, though, legalization is the only way to hurt drug producers and distributors significantly.

PS: interfere with other people sometimes might not even be enough, but if it doesn't, it shouldn't be illegal. Marijuana clearly doesn't (at least for the most part, e.g., driving under the influence, smoking in public areas, etc are might be issues to consider).

All this money in the wrong hands. Legalizing marijuana would allow for all this money to: 1) Gov't have additional funds to invest in (hopefully) education or security 2) Give people the freedom to do what they want