Pubdate: Tue, 27 Nov 2012
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2012 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117

MEETING OF THE PRESIDENTS

Drug Strategy Should Be Part of Conversation

When voters in Colorado and Washington recently legalized the 
recreational use of marijuana, their actions left Mexico 
President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto wondering whether tracking down 
pot growers in Mexico is a futile strategy.

It's an understandable question for Pena Nieto to ask directly when 
he visits President Barack Obama at the White House today in a 
traditional postelection meeting of leaders. At the prodding of the 
United States, Mexico spends billions of dollars annually to fight 
violent and wealthy paramilitary drug trafficking organizations. Yet 
the U.S., which also lays out billions of dollars to curb marijuana 
and other drug use, remains the main destination of marijuana 
produced in Mexico.

This pervasive disconnect among state, federal and global drug 
policies should prompt a serious re-evaluation of drug strategies. 
Frustration over violence and illicit drug profits has grown 
dramatically in recent years. Former Mexico President Vicente Fox 
once called for Mexico to legalize the production, distribution and 
sale of all drugs. In a recent interview with The Economist, 
departing Mexico President Felipe Calderon said ending the drug trade 
is "impossible," adding that it's up to the U.S. to either reduce its 
levels of drug use or use "market mechanisms" to reduce the flow of 
drug money to Mexico.

Noted Calderon: "If they [Americans] want to take all the drugs they 
want, as far as I'm concerned let them take them. I don't agree with 
it, but it's their decision, as consumers and as a society. What I do 
not accept is that they continue passing their money to the hands of killers."

This argument seems to be resonating among voters in the U.S. 
Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized 
marijuana possession and medical use of the substance, which places 
those states in conflict with federal drug laws. This is an untenable 
clash, but it also reflects a growing consensus here and globally 
that anti-drug strategies to date aren't working.

Momentum seems to be building around the idea of decriminalizing 
consumption to remove mega-profits from illicit trade. For example, 
the Organization of American States and presidents Juan Manuel Santos 
of Colombia and Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala are pushing for 
alternatives to current drug enforcement strategies.

The White House and the Congress should be asking the same tough 
questions. A drug policy that breeds uncertainty and frustration at 
home and abroad is a bad strategy. This newspaper supports certain 
medical uses of marijuana, but reserves judgment on whether broader 
decriminalization is the right approach.

This much is certain: The war against drugs isn't working - here or 
abroad. Congress and the White House owe it to Americans and our 
drug-fighting allies to devise more realistic marijuana policies.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom