Senior official goes with the flow, would decriminalize drugs

Santo Domingo.- United States’ decades-long war on drugs avoid the warlike strategies within its territory and has managed not to fill its jails with consumers, and treats them as patients instead.

As more senior officials in the region begin to suggest the legalization of drug consumption, National Drugs Council president (CND) Mabel Feliz now also favors it, after rejecting the notion at the start of the year.

Interviewed by newspaper El Dia, the official said the legalization of consumption should to together with the treatment of addicts as patients to regenerate them. She calls the legalization of marijuana in several states, an implicit tolerance to carry portions of some types of drugs in the streets only for consumption.

And while in countries including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay already have legislation to legalize drug consumption and deal with it as a public health problem, Dominican Republic still punishes it with jail terms.

Feliz favors a revamp of Law 55-88 on drugs, because in her view it doesn’t treat drug consumers as patients and conceived to penalize narcotics trafficking. She said the CND and Public Health Ministry must work jointly to create chemical detoxification units to treat chronic addicts.