Photo: Mantas Ruzveltas
My heart bleeds for Mexico. Since President Calderon declared war on drugs in 2006, 50,000 people have lost their lives in drug-related violence. The biggest consumer of Mexico’s illegal drug trade is the U.S., per the Mexican president. The complicated interlacing of the drug economy within the total Mexican economy is not surprising, given that drug trafficking is a billion-dollar industry. Big money follows big demand and the U.S. has plenty of that.
Millions of people enjoy what are commonly called vices. Some of these are socially accepted, such as alcohol and tobacco, but this was not always the case. Between 1920 and 1933, the U.S. had its own era of violence related to attempted governmental suppression of vice. The era of prohibition is largely viewed as a failed policy that caused more harm than good. Yet, the “new” prohibition against illegal drugs has been wreaking havoc not only in the U.S., but also in Latin America. Last year, the Global Commission on Drug Policy advised that the global war on drugs has failed and that countries should seek measures to end criminalization of drug use.
The U.S. government also reported last year that the amount of taxpayer dollars used in the effort cannot be justified, and given the resources that the U.S. must employ in global conflicts, the military is becoming increasingly unable to stop trafficking.
Many voices within Latin America are calling for decriminalization – if not outright legalization – of drugs due to the devastating effects of the war on their societies. Negative effects are also felt in the United States. As of 2010, a quarter of the incarcerated population was there for non-violent drug offenses. The cost of incarceration to taxpayers is significant, and the societal cost of misguided punitive policies rather than a therapeutic approach to addiction are perhaps some of the most compelling reasons to consider a change in current U.S. policy.
Alcohol is, after all, a drug, as nicotine is a drug in tobacco. There is not a small touch of hypocrisy in the notion that these drugs are acceptable for consumption but that use of drugs such as marijuana, for example, is more dangerous or immoral. It is time at least to consider the effects that decriminalizing, regulating and taxing some of these chemicals would have not only on U.S. public health but also on economic resources with increased revenue from legal sales combined with a reduction in the cost of apprehension, prosecution and incarceration of individuals for non-violent offenses. Such an approach would have the benefit of helping bring into legality the growth, transportation and sale of at least some of these substances, so that the violence accompanying their manufacture would be significantly attenuated in Latin America.
The current U.S. approach seeks to stop the cultivation and importation of drugs, but a market will always exist where consumers demand it. The government cannot eliminate the desire to consume; it should consider changing its approach to deal more rationally with the issue.
About Maitri Pamo
Now is the time to end the failed war. The only way to cut out the cartels is regulation and legalization.
Just like being drunk, your employment will depend on you being coherant. SMoke up, just don’t f’ up.
Now, if only we could get the government to realize that it’s been a failure…
Seriously? Arguing to legalize drugs? Absolute stupidity. Hell, gangs are increasing let’s legalize gangs too. We are also losing the war on violent murders, lets legalize murder! Well, we obviously can’t hunt down every single terrorist, lets legalize terrorism!
Sorry, but this article is absolute stupidity.
legalize, regulate, and tax the crap out of it. You’re welcome, the economy. I’ve never used drugs in my life of any kind, nor do I plan to, but that’s how to take away the power from the scumbag cartels. Cut them off.
@Tim, drugs don’t commit violent acts. All these prohibitive object based laws do is create crime, increase cost, and most importantly,…remove the responsibility of the individual.
Then the government would really become corrupt. Extorting the poor, gaining money from the deaths of millions. Getting paid to ruin marriages, take away parents and kill teenagers… Then we would be no better than terrorists and tyrants who commit genocide.
Addicted people would never recover.
@ Tim – Luckily we have a real world test of how legalization could work out, look at Portugal since 2001 http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html
legalize it…….. don’t criticize it!!!!!
Oh yeah………… Ron Paul 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tim, you realize tobacco, alcohol, and medicines are all drugs the government regulates, right?
p.s. Your worst case scenario examples actually sound a lot like the current reality.
@ Tim, have you ever heard of Ricky “Freeway” Ross? If not, Google.
The country of my birth, Guatemala, is awash in violence. It is easy to moralize use of any drug, alcohol and cigarettes included, when your friends and family are not in danger due to the demand for a product in another country. It proves almost impossible to stop the violence associated with such a lucrative trade. The drug lords are ruthless in their pursuit to maintain their profits. The people who often pay due to the nefarious nature of the drug gangs are too often civilians. It’s not as if the US war on drugs is a new program and we need to give it some time to prove itself. Regulation and taxation! Otherwise, let’s stop the farce and make illegal alcohol and cigarettes as well in order to make the hypocrisy go away. I’m sure that would go over well. Insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result. Look at Amsterdam, or Barcelona….
Do alcoholics manage to control their addictions? Yes, thankfully, many do. People quit smoking. And as long as the person harms no one (gee, no one EVER got behind the wheel drunk and killed her/himself or worse someone else) (gee, no one has ever died from diseases caused by cigarette smoking ) and tax money is lining coffers for public education, infrastructure improvements, green initiatives, let’s throw some money to Medicare and social security! Put the responsibility on the individual: show up to something inappropriately drunk, toked up….pay the consequences. Otherwise, private use on own time should not be moralized. Take the power away from the cartels! Let the poor farmers reap the benefits of what they grow….this approach would also allow the financial structure in place not to collapse and thus have unforeseen consequences for the people in those communities who depend on this income. Honduras is murder capital #1 right now!!
The fact of the matter is that people on drugs do murder, suffer from paranoia and many ofther mental disorders. Alcohol and cigarette addiction are nothing compared to crack, cocain, meth addictions. So people who are addicted often never beat the habbit. Gangs will always manage to extort the drug industry by creating new drugs and building a demand. They would kill store clerks and drug addicts would be roaming the streets looking for money for a fix.
That has not happened in countries with a different approach. Of course, cannot extrapolate completely to the US. Also, not calling for legalization of all narcotics. People can drink themselves and smoke themselves to death. The model in Amsterdam is interesting in that it does not show an increase over time of the number of people who consume. And I agree, someone is always looking for the. Next thing. Gangs will always seek to control that. That’s the point I’m making….so why not appropriate as much of their business as possible, deal them a crippling blow by paying a living wage to produce it, tax the hell out of it, take the fangs of the gangs who have to murder to get the product to market. Not suggesting it’s perfect, just a different approach to dealing with a global problem that is decimating Latin America and reigning terror on its people
Although this article is old, this is everyday news in my country
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2011/08/20118156513236220.html
After many years of having an excellent working drugs policy system that is highly regarded as effective by many experts around the world the new Dutch Government is trying to make it more difficult for people to legally purchase cannabis which many experts say will result in street dealing and more crime as in other countries. The new policy will also make it really difficult for medical cannabis patients, most of whom are advised by their Doctors to use the Coffeeshops, where cannabis is presently legally sold, to get their medicine as majority of Health Insurance companies do not pay for it, ,or only partially pay for it with expensive ‘top-up’ insurance. As a patient who has been prescribed Sativex http://www.gwpharm.com (which was the Thin Green Line Between Life or Death for me at the time) and now Bedrocan http://www.bedrocan.nl, the Government grown and supplied medical cannabis, but my expensive Health Insurance, an insurance that I am legally obliged to pay for, refuses to pay for it. If I didn’t pay my health insurance and instead use the money to purchase my medicine for pain and illness relief I would get taken to Court and get a big fine. I have been informed, in writing, that here is only one Health Insurance company in Holland who pays for most of a patients prescription costs. Under the proposed new Laws limiting access to Coffeeshops to a maximum of 1500 locally registered people it will become difficult for many patients to obtain legal supply of an effective medicine for which there is no alternative. In many areas there are no local Coffeeshops and patients have travel to the bigger towns where they will not be able to get on a local register. Looks like the new Dutch Government wants the type of illegal drug dealing, crime, and an expensive ‘war on drugs’ policing system that many others countries wished they did not have.
Nice to see my post about the developing situation in the Netherlands has been removed.
American Censorship is still trying to dominate the world!
Oops! Maybe I was too fast. My post eventually has been displayed. It was initially displayed but when I came back hours later it wasn’t showing. Now it is.
Dutch Coffeeshops -cannabis cafes set to become private clubs under new proposed Law.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/05/cannabis_cafes_set_to_become_p.php
50,000 Ppl
50,000 people….