Alicia Castilla: Free at Last
By Mike Bifari
Finally, Alicia Castilla, 67, was taken out of an Uruguayan prison near Montevideo on May 5.
Alicia, an Argentine cannabis writer and author of Cultura Cannabica, already a best-seller in Spain, was sent to prison for more than two months after a special squad team busted her house and found 20 small cannabis plants.
Alicia had retired and moved to Uruguay to find some relaxation near the beach. Her nightmare started when she was denounced by an informant. The local police then raid-ed Alicia’s house, put it all upside down, and took her homeopathic medicine away from her.
Immediately, the local media gave a huge coverage of her case and named her ¨cannabis grandmother.” She was in every TV program, and a debate started around her case and the legal-ization of marijuana.
Alicia meanwhile was in prison, did-n’t
stop one moment since she got there, and made a survey among 150 female inmates
that were in prison for drug trafficking (crack cocaine). The results were that
148 of the women will continue with illegal traf-ficking after they gain
freedom, and only two of them will give up this mule-style business. This whole
work done by Alicia inside the prison is, of course, another proof of the
complete failure of the policy of the war on drugs taking place in South
America. After this, she stated that she was not aware that so many small cocaine
family businesses were taking place; she thought that the big cocaine car-tels
were the ones who traffic most. “Now I became a coca expert,” she said.
On the other side of the Rio de la Plata, a young and vigorous Argentine cannabis activist made two demonstrations in front of the Argentine foreign office in down-town Buenos Aires, and many gath-erings took place in Montevideo around the presentation in court of Alicia’s case, who by this time was of vital importance for the entire region (Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay) concerning the change of the current marijuana laws.
A political debate also started around the Uruguayan government concern-ing Alicia’s imprisonment. The presi-dent himself had to make a declara-tion expressing his concerned for Alicia, but at the same time hypocrit-ically stated that Uruguay has an independent justice system.
Three different drafts of a new bill concerning the change of the current marijuana laws were sent to Congress. One of them is advanced and already is being studied in com-missions. There are 350 prisoners for marijuana in Uruguay and 30 of them for cultivation who will be automatically released if the draft is approved by Congress.
All this is happening in the middle of a big debate surrounding marijuana legalization and a kind of take-off for thousands of home growers that now are united. The new bill talks about eight mature plants and up to 25 grams. To carry on, we all hope and are waiting for the laws to be changed so that Alicia’s sacrifice to spend so much time would not be in vain. She is still waiting for trial, but now with a home arrest.
