Pubdate: Wed, 18 Apr 2012
Source: Centre Daily Times (PA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.centredaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/74
Note: The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.

LEGALIZING DRUGS IS SOMETHING TO CONSIDER

The Summit of the Americas is more often a photo opportunity than a 
forum for bold policy initiatives.

When issues of substance are discussed, the meeting of the 
hemisphere's 34 leaders has generally yielded more clashes than 
regional pacts. But some saw a chance for a little more action this 
year when leaders from several Latin American countries came to this 
past weekend's summit in the Colombian seaside city of Cartagena 
complaining of drug war fatigue.

In the past six months, that weariness has been spreading throughout 
Latin America. Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos, Guatemala's Otto Perez 
Molina and Mexico's Felipe Calderon have all suggested that 
governments need to look at options beyond the military strategies 
that have left tens of thousands dead in Latin America while failing 
to curb consumption in the United States, the largest cocaine market 
in the world.

The three leaders, all close U.S. allies, say it is time to discuss 
decriminalizing drugs, with Perez writing that global drug policy is 
grounded in what he calls the false premise that "global drug markets 
can be eradicated."

He says that ending prohibition would remove the obscene profits from 
the trade and, as a result, reduce the competition and violence that 
is part of it.

Crime and violence associated with drug trafficking threaten to 
destabilize the region further, despite U.S. counter-narcotics aid. 
The drug wars in Mexico have left about 50,000 dead since 2006. 
Honduras now has the highest homicide rate in the world, much of 
which is blamed on transnational gangs and drug cartels operating in 
the region.

Government corruption tied to drug trafficking has swept across much 
of Central America.

With the U.S. presidential election just months away, the Obama 
administration is not going to engage in discussions about 
liberalizing drug laws at the moment.

But Latin American leaders, weary of failed enforcement policies, are 
calling for an important discussion. The United States should not 
jump on the decriminalization bandwagon without a lot of serious 
thought and careful analysis. Nor should it shut itself out of that debate.

Alternative approaches that hold out hope for a regional solution 
deserve a fair hearing.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom