Pubdate: Sat, 25 Feb 2012
Source: Kansas City Star (MO)
Copyright: 2012 The Kansas City Star
Contact:  http://www.kansascity.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/221
Author: Andres Oppenheimer, Columnist, The Miami Herald
Note: Andres Oppenheimer is a Miami Herald syndicated columnist and a 
member of The Miami Herald team that won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize. He 
also won the 1999 Maria Moors Cabot Award, the 2001 King of Spain 
prize, and the 2005 Emmy Suncoast award. He is the author of Castro's 
Final Hour; Bordering on Chaos, on Mexico's crisis; Cronicas de heroes 
y bandidos, Ojos vendados, Cuentos Chinos and most recently of Saving 
the Americas.

LEGALIZATION FORCES ARE GAINING GROUND IN DRUG WAR

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: Richard R Smith Jr.