Pubdate: Sun, 08 Sep 2013
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2013 Miami Herald
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Andres Oppenheimer
Note: Andres Oppenheimer is a Latin American correspondent for the Miami Herald

A TURNING POINT IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

U.S. Can't Allow Legalization at Home While Fighting It Abroad, Says 
Andres Oppenheimer

The U.S. decision not to challenge Washington and Colorado's plans to 
legalize marijuana makes the U.S. drug policy look like a textbook 
case of political hypocrisy: How can the U.S. government give a green 
light to legalization at home while continuing to fight it abroad?

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department issued a ruling telling 
federal prosecutors not to interfere with the two U.S. states that 
have passed laws allowing the recreational use and sale of marijuana 
starting next year. The ruling has been hailed by pro-legalization 
forces as historic, since marijuana continues to be an illegal drug 
under federal laws.

In its memo Aug. 29, the Justice Department told prosecutors not to 
challenge the two states' pot legalization laws as long as they 
impose a strict regulatory system that prohibits, among other things, 
the sale of marijuana to minors, the cultivation of marijuana on 
public lands and its export to other states that have not legalized it.

"This puts the United States in an awkward position in respect to its 
drug war export policy," says John Walsh, a drug expert with the 
Washington Office on Latin America, a group that supports pot 
legalization. "The United States is going ahead with a policy that is 
quite different from what it tells other countries to do."

It's a policy decision that is likely to have a big impact in Latin 
America, where many countries are debating their own drug legalization laws.

In Uruguay, the Chamber of Deputies has already approved a 
government-supported marijuana legalization bill, which is likely to 
be approved by the Senate before the end of the year. Now, with the 
latest U.S. Justice Department decision, its Senate approval may be 
even easier than previously expected.

In Mexico, where more than 50,000 people have died in the U.S.-backed 
war on drugs over the past six years, legalization supporters in 
Congress will have additional arguments to back their stands. Why 
should we continue to spend money and lives to eradicate marijuana 
crops and to seize the drug before it reaches the U.S. border, when 
the United States has stopped fighting this war at home? they will ask.

Mexico is by far the biggest exporter of marijuana to the United 
States and where the Justice Department ruling may have the biggest 
impact. Other major pot exporters in the region are Jamaica, Canada 
and Colombia.

Asked about the contradiction in U.S. domestic and foreign drug 
policies, a State Department spokesman told me: "Marijuana is and 
remains illegal under federal law. We continue our important 
counternarcotics cooperation with the international community to 
combat drug trafficking and use, and to improve citizen security."

U.S. officials suggest that it's important to remember that the 
Justice Department's decision is conditioned on Washington state and 
Colorado's ability to effectively police themselves. Internationally, 
it's not that clear that countries with weak institutions will be 
able to do that and prevent, among other things, sales of marijuana 
to minors, legalization critics say.

As Uruguayan Sen. Pedro Bordaberry, an opponent of his country's pot 
legalization bill, told me recently, "If Uruguay cannot even 
effectively enforce its prohibition to resell tickets for soccer 
matches, how can we expect it to enforce prohibition of marijuana 
sales to minors?"

My opinion: The Justice Department's decision not to challenge the 
Washington state and Colorado legalization laws will go down in 
history as a turning point in the four-decade-old U.S. war on drugs.

There is no question that legalization of marijuana makes more sense 
in Colorado or Washington, where the police may be able to prevent 
pot sales to children or drugged driving, than in Guatemala or 
Honduras, where the police can often not even be trusted to be on the 
right side of the law.

But, in light of the latest Justice Department decision, the current 
U.S. drug policy is unsustainable. The Obama administration should 
drop its blanket opposition to foreign countries' marijuana 
legalization laws. It should do so in exchange for international 
agreements to enforce strict regulations on the marijuana business, 
including commitments to invest savings from marijuana eradication 
into anti-drug education campaigns and drug prevention and 
rehabilitation programs. It's a new day in the drugfighting movement. 
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom