Latino USA recently aired a story on Yvona Rodriguez, Marine combat veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan (see full story, below). Like many combat vets, Rodriguez struggles with PTSD, psychological trauma that resulted from his service. Like some of his peers, Rodriguez turned towards marijuana to help with PTSD. Unlike other veterans, though, Rodriguez is an immigrant.

In Ecuador important advances have been made in the area of drug policy, with civil society playing an active part in them. The country's National Assembly is currently debating a bill: "Organic Law for the Comprehensive Prevention of Drugs and the Use of Catalogued Substances Subject to Regulation.”

In 1998 the country revised its “Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act” (Act 108), under which consumption was decriminalised. However, there existed legal contradictions and flaws that ended up penalising users and consumers for holding, possession and transport, without any criterion of proportionality, all entailing sentences of 12-16 years.

Recently, Latin America has surprised us with the giant steps taken towards the legalization of cannabis. Jose Mujica opened Pandora's Box and in a time when that regulation was in no man's land, Uruguayan citizens were quick to react and show support for their former president. Thus, and as if it were a domino effect, the voice spread like wildfire. As a result, today, the vast majority of countries in Latin America, are in favor of a real decriminalization of marijuana regulation. This article will discuss the recent news coming from Puerto Rico, Brazil, Uruguay and Ecuador.

Medicinal users rebel against the Government of Puerto Rico

During the 1980s and 1990s, as the United States battled the scourge of cocaine throughout the hemisphere, Washington did most of the talking. Latin American governments were forced to listen and fall in line. The American government had the most money to throw at the problem, the toughest justice system and the biggest bully pulpit.

Add Ecuador to a growing list of countries pushing back against the U.S. “war on drugs.”

A ruling party lawmaker recently introduced legislation that would make Ecuador the second country in the world — and the first in the Americas— to decriminalize the personal use of all drugs, from marijuana to cocaine to heroin.

The bill, presented by a lawmaker allied with President Rafael Correa, would regulate the consumption of over 100 substances and create a state agency to control the importation, exportation, production and cultivation of illegal drugs. Anyone interested in using or obtaining drugs would have to register with the agency.

Ecuadorian lawmakers have proposed a historic piece of legislation that would decriminalize all illegal drugs.

Last month, Carlos Velasco, who manaages the Ecuador congressional Commission of the Right to Health, submitted the Organic Law on Comprehensive Drug Prevention bill that would end criminal penalties currently associated with the possession and use of illegal substances, while establishing a system that provides prevention and rehabilitation programs instead.

“Treating the drug phenomenon in a repressive way – as was done in the 1980s and 1990s when prison was the only destination for the drug consumer – is absurd,” noted Velasco.

Hundreds gathered for the Global Marijuana March held in Guayaquil, Ecuador to peacefully protest against prohibitionist drug laws.

Ecuador’s National Assembly is currently debating the Organic Law on Comprehensive Drug Prevention, which could decriminalize drugs like marijuana.

Ecuador may be on the verge of a landmark shift in drug policy, as legislators debate the newly proposed Organic Law on Comprehensive Drug Prevention. The initiative, promoted by the ruling party PAIS Alliance, opens the door for legalization, and could spell the beginning of the end for the War on Drugs in Ecuador.

Ecuador is in the process of considering a groundbreaking piece of legislation that would decriminalize the use of illegal drugs, including marijuana and cocaine, according to GlobalPost.

"Treating the drug phenomenon in a repressive way, as was done in the 1980s and 1990s when prison was the only destination for the drug consumer, is absurd," Carlos Velasco, who chairs the Ecuadorean congress’ Commission of the Right to Health and who authored the bill,wrote on his Facebook page earlier this month.

A new bill in Ecuador seeks to change the public-policy paradigm on drug use in the country. On Thursday, April 9, legislators held a historic first debate of the Organic Law on Comprehensive Drug Prevention in the National Assembly.+

The project, promoted by the ruling party PAIS Alliance, was introduced to the chamber by Carlos Velasco, head of the Commission of the Right to Health.+

The bill aims for “comprehensive drug prevention, by establishing a legal and institutional framework to address drug use, and the regulation of the substances that are subject to control.”+