Newsgroups: alt.drugs
From: [catalyst remailer] at [netcom.com]
Subject: "Columbian Kids Use Legal Drugs"
Date: Mon, 9 May 1994 08:46:53 -0700

I didn't make up the Subject line, the news did.

        BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Pungent smoke wafted through the air as
dozens of youths gathered around a guitarist and ad-libbed a song:
``Revolution! Legalization! Smoke Marijuana!''
        The scene alongside a boulevard in downtown Bogota on Sunday
night came three days after Colombia's Constitutional Court struck
down laws against the use and possession of small amounts of drugs.
        Police walked past the group of about 200 pot smokers earlier in
the day and did nothing, witnesses said.
        Colombia is the world's biggest supplier of cocaine and the site
of a drug war that has killed thousands of people.
        The Constitutional Court legalized possession and use of small
amounts of cocaine, marijuana, hashish and hallucinogens. The
production, trafficking and sale of drugs remain illegal.
        Although the ruling won't take effect for about two weeks, it
might as well be law already. Police patrolling Bogota's Zona Rosa,
or Pink Zone -- a neon-lit area of bars, discos and casinos
frequented by students and young professionals -- said they would
not make arrests if they saw people using drugs.
        ``I wouldn't do a thing, unless you were carrying a huge bag of
drugs,'' one said.
        But this weekend, revelers in the Zona Rosa were swilling beer
and other spirits, and weren't seen using drugs.
        The impromptu smoke-in on Sunday happened in a rougher part of
town.
        ``It's not bad, man,'' a 17-year-old, who gave his name only as
Johnny and said he was getting high for the first time, declared
with a grin.
        By nightfall, the crowd of 200 dwindled to about 50 diehards,
puffing away as a chill drizzle fell.
        The group jumped up and down in unison, singing: ``Smoke
marijuana! The police smoke marijuana. The president smokes
marijuana. The Cabinet smokes marijuana. Your grandmother smokes
marijuana. Everyone smokes marijuana!''
        President Cesar Gaviria, surprised and angered at the court's
ruling, said he wants a national referendum on the legalization of
drugs. A date has not been set.
        In the meantime, Gaviria said, the government will obey the
ruling by the highest court on constitutional issues.
        According to a poll conducted for El Tiempo, Colombia's most
widely read newspaper, most Colombians are against legalization.
        Of the 305 people polled, 69 percent were opposed and 30 percent
were in favor. The survey, which interviewed adults from all
economic classes, had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8
percent.