Pubdate: Sun, 19 Feb 2012
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Column: In My Opinion
Copyright: 2012 Miami Herald Media Co.
Contact:  http://www.miamiherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Andres Oppenheimer

PRO-DRUG LEGALIZATION FORCES ARE GAINING CLOUT

For the first time since the United States launched its "war on 
drugs" four decades ago, there are signs that the forces supporting 
legalization or de-criminalization of illegal drugs are gaining 
momentum across the hemisphere.

Granted, this is a debate that is just starting at government levels, 
and that will take years to produce concrete results.

But there are several new factors, including a reduction of U.S. 
anti-narcotic aid to Latin America proposed by the Obama 
Administration in its 2013 budget announced last week, that are 
beginning to pose an increasingly serious challenge to the 
traditional interdiction-based U.S. anti-drug strategies.

Consider:

First, for the first time, Latin American presidents currently in 
office are openly calling for government-to-government talks to 
discuss legalization or decriminalization of illicit drugs.

Last week, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said he will 
propose to his Central American counterparts to legalize drugs in the 
region and to decriminalize the transportation of drugs through the area.

"I want to bring this discussion to the table," Perez Molina was 
quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "It wouldn't be a crime to 
transport, to move drugs. It would all have to be regulated."

Aides to Perez Molina tell me that he will bring it up at a 
pre-scheduled meeting of Central American countries next month.

Until now, several former presidents - Vicente Fox and Ernesto 
Zedillo of Mexico, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Cesar 
Gaviria of Colombia, among them - have signed statements calling for 
the legalization of decriminalization of drugs, but they only did it 
once they had left office. The current presidents of Mexico and 
Colombia say they are open to discuss the issue, but that they will 
not lead the pack.

Second, simultaneously, the United States plans to reduce its 
anti-drug aid to Latin America by 16 percent next year, according to 
the 2013 budget the Obama administration sent to Congress last week.

According to the budget proposal, U.S. narcotics control and law 
enforcement funds to Mexico would be cut by nearly $50 million, or 20 
percent from last year's levels, while anti-drug funds to Colombia 
would drop by 11 percent, and to Guatemala by 60 percent.

Supporters of the U.S. aid cuts say the decline reflects in part 
Latin American countries' growing capabilities to fight the drug 
cartels by themselves. Critics dispute that, saying that it's hard to 
argue that Mexico and Guatemala, among others, need less foreign anti-drug aid.

Third, while there is no movement on this issue in the U.S. Congress, 
pro-decriminalization forces in the United States are making 
significant progress at the state level.

There are already 13 states that have approved use of marihuana for 
medical purposes, and three others will propose it in state ballots 
in the November election.

In addition, some experts predict that California's Proposition 19 
marijuana legalization initiative, which lost by 8 percent of the 
vote in 2010, is likely to pass in November. Their reasoning: more 
young people - who tend to support legalization - will vote in this 
year's general election in California than they did in the 2010 
mid-term election.

Before concluding this column, I asked University of Miami professor 
Bruce Bagley, an expert on U.S. drug-policies in Latin America, how 
he sees the various challenges against the traditional interdiction 
and prohibition-based U.S. drug policies.

"This is becoming a kind of avalanche," said Bagley, who supports 
decriminalization of marijuana. "There is a growing questioning of 
the hard-line drug policies both in Latin America and here in the 
United States."

Bagley added, "Prevention, education, treatment and rehabilitation 
programs are more effective than drug-supply repression."

My opinion: I agree. Granted, decriminalization of marijuana would 
bring about an increase of consumption at the beginning. Most studies 
show that when the United States lifted the prohibition against 
alcohol, the price of alcohol went down, and consumption went up. The 
same may happen with drugs.

But most studies also show that - much like happened with cigarette 
smoking - effective campaigns can dramatically reduce drug 
consumption, without the sequel of domestic crime epidemics and 
"wars," such as the ones that are leaving tens of thousands of deaths 
a year in Mexico and Central America's drug-related violence.

Until now, this was a debate that was limited to former presidents, 
academics and journalists. Now, it's beginning to make its way into 
government houses.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom