Colombian attorney Joaquin Torres has filed a class action against the government to ban the sale and distribution of reggaeton music for its “subliminal messages” encouraging drug use.
Torres said that he hopes to discourage Colombia’s youth from trying drugs and felt that censoring an entire musical genre was necessary in doing so, reported Radio Reloj.
The attorney has been arguing since April that while the Colombian government promotes a strict legislative stance on drug prohibition, it simultaneously allows pro-drug messages to be freely expressed through the media.
Torres referred to the song “Creepy Creepy,” which is slang for marijuana, as an example for what is wrong with the genre because it “openly encourages the consumption of drugs.”
He defended his position by adding, “It does not interest me to become a prosecutor so I can put someone in jail. What interests me is that the national government establishes a clear position (…) [that it either] permits the consumption of drugs in a ‘confrontational’ way that is recognized, or that the government fixes a sincere position on how to act to avoid stimulating the consumption of drugs.”
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who admitted to smoking marijuana in college, said last month that the world should talk about legalizing drugs, including cocaine, as an effort to “take away the violent profit that comes with drug trafficking.”