 Hello everyone. I will begin by saying that if you have been in the sessions throughout the past couple of days and in particular the NGO session today you've probably heard quite a bit about drug policy and the impact it has in young people and children and I on that note I would like to start by thanking both the IDPC Transform and the campaign on counting the costs of war for opening up a space for an actual young person to speak around all these policies that affect our lives rather than keep on hearing other people that don't necessarily know how these policies impact their youth in their different countries keep talking about them. I entitled the presentation counting the costs in Latin America because I want to very quickly give a an overview of the different drug policies that are currently used in Latin America and then I will focus at the end a little bit more in the case of Mexico as to be able to you know paint a picture of what goes on in the region and maybe use that as a basic analysis for you know where the debate should be going. So the very first one again is it's the dynamic of policies and I do understand there's several people who come from the region here and that know probably these policies a little bit better than I do and that's why I will go really quick about this. So the very first one is Argentina and well you've got the law number 23,737 which punished possession of drugs for personal consumption with prison sentence ranging from one month to two years and it also included education or treatment measures as a substitute for those penalties. This law as you may know was voted in the Supreme Court last August 25 2009 and it was an anonymously ruled unconstitutional applicable to those cases of drug possession for personal consumption that does not affect others. The next one that I will be very quickly over viewing is Brazil. Brazil has a law which cites in its article 28 web acquires stores transport services and authorized drugs for personal consumption in violation with legal standards or guidelines shall be forced to comply with the following. A. Warning about the effects of drugs B. Community service and C. Participation in a drug educational program. So again it gives a sense of that's why entitled that slide depending decriminalization it gives a sense of where Brazil is heading in that sense. The next one is Colombia and Colombia is an interesting case right now in 1994 the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the punishment for possession of amounts for personal use based on article 16 of the Constitution regarding individual liberty. Since then adults can actually possess up to 20 grams of marijuana and one gram of cocaine among other substances for consumption in the privacy of their homes. However right now or last year rather legislative act number two or that's how it was called in 2009 in its article one it forbids any possession or consumption of drugs. This act is currently sitting at the Colombian Constitutional Court and NGOs and different organizations of civil society are you know waiting for the court to review it. Next is Paralyze which has a law that dates back from 1988 and that in its article 30 sites whoever possesses substances detailed in this law prescribed by a doctor or whoever possesses them exclusively for personal consumption will be exempted from punishment. Again drug users exclusively personal use will be determined by the amount of substance and possession equivalent to what is considered a daily dosage or as determined by the forensic doctor and a specialized doctor. In the case of marijuana they shall not surpass 10 grams and in the case of cocaine heroin and other opiates two grams. The next one is Uruguay the law dates back from 1974 and the phrasing of the 1974 law was updated in 1998 and its sites whoever is in possession of a reasonable quantity exclusively destined for personal consumption as morally determined by the judge who would have to include his reasoning for such ruling in the sentence will be exempted from punishment. Next one is Venezuela and Venezuela has in its organic law on psychotropic and neurotic substances and article 75 and again I quote personal dose is defined as no more than two grams in the case of cocaine and its derivatives mixed or composed with one or various ingredients and up to 20 grams in the case of cannabis article 76 which follows says the following safety measures will be applied for the cases stated in the previous act one admission in a rehabilitation center specialized therapy to cure or detoxification three social reintegration of subject for parole and monitoring upon release and five deportation of foreign non-resident subjects. Last but not least next one is Mexico's current law it comes as you may know from a decree called Narco Menudo decree which was approved in August of 2009 and it reforms both the general health law and the criminal procedure code. The two particular articles that in that match her to the debate is 477 and 478 the first one punishes possession of drug control for personal consumption it sets a table of maximum amounts that you may possess for personal consumption and if well it punishes that with up to 80 days of minimum wage fine or a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to three years and six months. However an article 478 it allows for those facing criminal charges for drug possession once it has been shown that it was it had it had no intense of commercializing that those drugs and so it was you it was meant to be for personal consumption to be acquitted if they seek treatment. After the third time of reinstatement or after the third time of being caught there will be no excuse for criminal charge. Again I will try to very quickly just focus on the costs of these strategies in particular in the case of Mexico. So you know I guess I don't want to state the obvious because all of you have heard quite a lot about it and many organizations in this room actually have put out a lot of reports around it but you know there's always the figure of what a frontal war in the case of Mexico has meant for the past four years. You know 35,000 plus deaths in the in the sense of human rights violations we heard yesterday from both TNI and WOLA about the you know the report of systems overload overload sorry drug laws and prisons in Latin America and Human Rights Watch has also put out a report last December on uniform impunity looking at violations of human rights by the military to civilians and how these cases may not be reviewed or have not been reviewed by courts civil courts of course. Last but not least the again stating the obvious further criminalization and stigmatization of drug users in particular those who are young. On the next slide I just put a very it's two figures coming up so the first one I just thought it was interesting around the particular debate of the war on drugs in Mexico. This put vis-a-vis per capita budget on security and law enforcement so on the bottom you've got the different violence index per state at the very top one I know it's very small I'm sorry about that on the very top you've got Mexico City and on the very right you've got Chihuahua which is you know the state with you that what is one of the currently thought of or indexed as the most violent city in the world and you know going up you've got how much money is put or how much money is invested in the security budget of those states and I just thought it was interesting to see that on first hand. On the second slide I tried to do a very quick again vis-a-vis figure on budget expenditure versus health expenditure at a federal level so you know in there you've got from 2007 to 2011 these are official figures from the Chamber of Deputies and you've got the percentages so while you you may see that the health budget in it in the official reports is still higher than the security budget you know the percentages are rather interesting for the first three I think 2007 2008 and 2009 you see that the security budget accounts for about one-third of the health budget however for 2009 I'm sorry it's one-third 2010 it goes up to one-third as well right and then 2011 is the the appointed budget as approved by the by the deputies again it's just I think interesting to look at the percentages as to prove the the case of you know where the political will or where the political decision of the country as a strategy is heading on the on the next slide I basically state that which is that but there's a budgetary tendency that seems to not be necessarily you know sticking to the actual needs of the people the last national poll of addictions which is called which is from 2008 and it was put out by the end of 2009 you know shows an increase a quite big increase of people who use drugs yet you know the strategy continues to be to grow the budget on security and military forces rather than put it towards health agencies again this whole story or this whole strategy of puts the needs of drug users of course it overcrowded as it was explained yesterday by our colleague Pien the judicial system it confronts police forces with organized crime and you know if you do a very basic look out of where our police forces are at it is also very shocking to see you know they're being put out to fight against a series of institutions organized crime institutions that don't necessarily you know they're not ready to do so further more criminalized as most affected communities as we know in particular young people children women migrants and of course drug users I guess you know I would like to finish this brief presentation by you know challenging the different governments in Latin America of course the different governments in the world challenging in general you know everyone civil society public opinion the media to think if this is the kind of policies that we want for future generations if these are the kind of policies that we want for you know our different populations around the world and you know if we shall consider changing some of the policies I talked about before again thank you very much to transform IDPC