Pubdate: Fri, 09 Aug 2013
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2013 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400

LEGALIZING DRUGS DESERVES DEBATE

Although it is an idea that has percolated for decades and has grown 
in acceptance even in the traditionally conservative United States of 
late, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau appears to have kicked over a can 
of worms with his apparently off-the-cuff call for legalizing marijuana.

Mr. Trudeau's declaration to a crowd in Kelowna last month that his 
thinking has evolved from one of supporting decriminalization to 
legalization, regulation and taxation of the drug may have been a 
cynical attempt to tap into potential young voters who almost 
overwhelmingly support more liberal drug laws. But his position is 
neither radical nor unique - it reflects a growing global movement to 
shift from the decade-old, failed war on drugs to more pragmatic and 
less harmful strategies.

The depth of that changing tide was made clear in November when two 
American states, Colorado and Washington, voted to legalize 
marijuana. This summer Vermont became the 17th American state to 
decriminalize the possession of non-medical marijuana.

Canada, which has traditionally seen itself as more progressive than 
its American cousins on social issues such as universal public health 
care and legalized gay marriage, is now woefully behind the pack when 
it comes to the treatment of narcotics.

And it's not just in the United States where Canada is trailing. The 
presidents of Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia and Colombia have all called 
for a new, more liberal approach to drugs while last month Uruguay's 
senate passed legislation that will create a government body to 
regulate the sale and public smoking of marijuana for nationals.

Uruguay took these steps, by the way, even though polls have 
indicated overwhelming opposition to the move. It was part of a 
trifecta of liberalizing laws, including recently allowing women 
greater say in when to terminate their pregnancies and permitting 
gays and lesbians to legally marry.

The move for liberalization in Latin America is seen as a rejection 
of the decades of violence and crime imposed on the region by drug 
consumption and wars initiated in the north. There has been an 
international prohibition on drugs for a century, beginning with the 
opium conferences in The Hague and continuing through the United 
Nations' convention on narcotics passed in the early 1960s.

But the battle only really turned into a world war with former 
president Richard Nixon's 1971 declaration that drug abuse had become 
America's No. 1 enemy. Since then, an estimated $1 trillion has been 
spent fighting the war, which has evolved into a $500-billion-a-year industry.

Thousands have died - including an estimated 60,000 over the last 
five years in Mexico alone - tens of thousands have been arrested 
worldwide and the profits from the industry have been used to support 
international criminal organizations, brutal dictatorships and 
terrorist groups.

Canada has of late stepped up its investment in the losing cause, 
increasing arrests, strengthening sentences and offering to send 
warships for drug interdiction to Central America.

These are stakes that are too great to warrant simply a tossed out 
admission of slowly evolving conversion.

One hopes Mr. Trudeau's comments can be turned to a rational, national debate.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom