Pubdate: Tue, 28 May 2013
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2013 Miami Herald
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Andres Oppenheimer
Note: Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for The
Miami Herald.

OAS REPORT BREAKS GROUND ON MARIJUANA POLICY

Latin American presidents who support decriminalization of marijuana 
won a big diplomatic victory in recent days when the 34-country 
Organization of American States issued a report that considers that 
option as one of several policies that might help reduce the region's 
drug-related violence.

The 400-page OAS report, titled "The Drug Problem in the Americas," 
had been commissioned by Latin American countries at last year's 
Summit of the Americas attended by President Barack Obama in Cartagena.

While it doesn't make recommendations, it cites decriminalization of 
marijuana as one of several policy options that countries might 
adopt, in effect putting the option on the table. It is believed to 
be the first time that an international organization considers 
decriminalization of marijuana use as a possible drug policy.

The report calls for "greater flexibility" in anti-drug policies, and 
notes there are "trends that lead toward the decriminalization or 
legalization of the production, sale and use of marijuana."

It adds that "sooner or later, decisions in this area will need to be taken."

Conversely, decriminalizing or legalizing other drugs, such as 
cocaine, wouldn't be a good idea, it says. While marijuana is not 
more harmful than alcohol or tobacco, it says other drugs are.

In an interview, OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told me 
that the report merely presents scenarios, and "tries not to lean 
toward any particular option." But he conceded there is general 
agreement among experts who participated in the study on the need to 
treat illicit drugs as a health problem, rather than as a 
law-enforcement problem, a key point of decriminalization proponents.

"If a person is ill, you don't throw that person in jail," Insulza 
told me. "That person needs a special treatment, a treatment for 
somebody who has a serious addiction that must be overcome."

The OAS report comes after several Latin American presidents, 
including those of Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Uruguay, have 
called for changes in the U.S.-backed "war on drugs" that has left 
tens of thousands of dead in recent years.

These calls have intensified since Colorado and the state of 
Washington approved recreational use of marijuana last year. It is 
becoming increasingly hypocritical for the United States to ask other 
countries to fight marijuana growers, when the drug is legally 
consumed in several U.S. states, Latin American officials say.

Former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Cesar Gaviria 
of Colombia, Ricardo Lagos of Chile and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico - 
leading members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which 
supports legal regulation of all drugs - welcomed the OAS report.

Gaviria told me in a separate interview that while the OAS report 
doesn't openly support decriminalization or legalization of drugs, 
"it broke the taboo that you couldn't talk about these issues. Now, 
it has become a legitimate debate."

The OAS report - which, incidentally, is so convoluted and badly 
written that it's hard to get a general message out of it - is to be 
discussed at the OAS General Assembly in June. Guatemalan President 
Otto Pirez Molina has called for discussing legalization of all drugs 
at the meeting, which will be held in Guatemala.

The report might set in motion a diplomatic process that could lead 
to amending United Nations conventions that declare several drugs 
illegal. The U.N. General Assembly is scheduled to hold a Special 
Session on Drugs in 2016.

My opinion: I'm not sure that legalizing drugs would be a great idea 
in Latin America. It would put many already corrupt governments in 
charge of regulating and controlling billions of dollars of the newly 
legalized drug business.

That might work in Holland or in other European countries with strong 
institutions. But in Guatemala, Honduras and other countries where 
the police and justice systems are already being corrupted by the 
drug trade, it could weaken institutions further.

But decriminalizing marijuana consumption makes sense. Instead of 
putting pot smokers in jail, tying up courts and sending young people 
to jails where they are recruited by criminals, we should use those 
funds to launch massive campaigns to dissuade young people from 
consuming all drugs.

In that sense, the OAS report is a step forward. There is little 
doubt that the U.S. war on drugs is not working - so much so, that 
the Obama administration is no longer using that term - and that 
alternatives must be found.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom