Pubdate: Sun, 06 May 2012
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2012 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://thechronicleherald.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Peter McKenna
Note: Peter McKenna is a professor of political science at the 
University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.

LET'S JUST SAY NO TO THE WAR ON DRUGS

Having just returned from Colombia - once known as the cocaine 
capital of the world - it's not hard to see why impoverished 
Colombians turn to the cultivation and production of coca leaf, 
cocaine and opium poppies.

The climate is receptive, money is scarce, and there are few 
substitutes for such a lucrative crop. The so-called "balloon effect" 
also makes any crackdown on production ineffective, since crop 
cultivation, drug laboratories, and transportation routes squeezed in 
one area will inevitably pop up elsewhere.

Is it time, then, for Canadian to revisit our endorsement of a "war 
on drugs" approach to the illicit drug problem in Latin America? Such 
a hard-line, often militarized, strategy to narcotrafficking has 
produced precious few tangible benefits.

Mexico has been fighting the drug war for almost six years now and 
the supply to the U.S. market has remained intact, or even increased. 
But on the Mexican side, there is violence and seemingly irreducible 
carnage in certain parts of the country. More than 50,000 
drug-related deaths mark Mexico's failed efforts thus far.

For the law and order government of Stephen Harper - who has made 
inter-American affairs a key priority of his foreign policy - any 
softening of a robust supply-side approach is simply not on.

Harper's communications director, Andrew MacDougall, was blunt when 
he spoke to the Globe and Mail: "The prime minister would be a strong 
voice in that debate against the decriminalization of drugs. The 
government's strategy is in fact completely in the opposite direction."

Some political leaders and opinion-makers in the Americas, however, 
are now talking about legalizing and regulating the drug market or, 
at least, decriminalizing the region's drug trade.

In a mid-April interview with Agence France Press, and just before 
the beginning of the VI Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, 
Colombia, Guatemala's President Otto Perez Molina explained: "The war 
we have waged over the past 40 years has not yielded results. It's a 
war which, to speak frankly, we are losing."

Even the summit host country's president, Juan Manuel Santos, pushed 
for a vigorous discussion of drug legalization. He was adamant in a 
Miami Herald interview: "We know that our success has negatively 
affected other countries and we are pedaling and pedaling and 
pedaling like we're on a stationary bike. The moment has come to 
analyze if what we we're doing is best or if we can find a more 
effective and cheaper alternative for society."

In the end, the summit nations agreed to punt the drug football down 
the field for the time being by calling for more study. Nonetheless, 
there is a growing mood in the region for something radically 
different and this desire for change is not likely to disappear soon.

But as Harper said during a summit news conference: "Let me remind 
you of why these drugs are illegal. They are illegal because they 
quickly and totally - with many of the drugs - destroy people's lives 
and people are willing to make lots of money out of selling those 
products to people and destroying their lives."

But the issue is not the harmful effects of heroin and cocaine. It's 
about how best to regulate, confront and diminish the harmful effects 
of illicit drugs.

Obviously, Canada has important interests at stake, since drugs from 
Latin America do make their way to our streets. Often accompanying 
that flow of drugs is other crime, violent gang activity, and 
devastation of Canadian lives and families.

So if Canada is to jettison the "war on drugs" paradigm, how should 
we replace it?

First, the Canadian government needs to acknowledge that militarizing 
the drug war has been woefully unsuccessful and counterproductive. 
After that, we can start to think about providing financial 
assistance to improve the region's police and justice systems, to 
halting any program that sprays harmful chemicals on farmers' fields, 
and to assist many campesinos in finding alternative cash crops to 
coca leaf and poppies.

We should not rule out the possibility of working with our Latin 
American partners to decriminalize (beginning with marijuana) or 
legalize the drug business, especially if it serves to undermine the 
transnational criminal groups that control the drug trade.

As of today, though, Canada and the U.S. stand out as the major 
dissenting voices on combating the drug problem. By adopting this 
approach, we run the risk of damaging our image in the region, of 
being seen as obstructionist and overly U.S.-friendly, and even 
undermining our efforts to widen and deepen our linkages with the 
Americas. We should just say 'Yes' ourselves to new thinking.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom