Has the Time Come to Legalize Drugs?

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Has The Time Come To Legalize Drugs?

BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER:

Legalization of drugs -- long an issue championed mainly by fringe groups -- is rapidly moving to the mainstream in Latin America. Last week's surprise statement by former Mexican President Vicente Fox in support of ``legalizing production, sales and distribution'' of drugs made big headlines around the world. Fox, a former close U.S. ally who belongs to the same center-right political party as President Felipe Calderón, rocked the boat at home by indirectly criticizing the very premise of Calderon's all-out military offensive against Mexico's drug cartels, which has cost 28,000 lives since 2006. Calderon immediately responded that he opposes legalization of drugs, although he has opened a dialogue with political parties about the future of his country's anti-drug policies. The left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution announced that it supports ``de facto legalization'' of drugs. Fox's statement, first published Saturday in his blog, went far beyond a 2009 joint declaration by former Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia. In that statement, the three former leaders questioned the effectiveness of the U.S. war on drugs and proposed de-criminalizing possession of marijuana for personal use. While the three centrist former presidents' proposal amounted to not prosecuting people for consuming marijuana, Fox's proposal calls for legalization of all major drugs -- the whole enchilada.

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In an extended interview, Fox told me that he is making his proposal because drug-related violence in Mexico has reached intolerable levels, and because the experience of other countries such as the Netherlands has shown that allowing drug sales has not significantly driven up drug consumption.

``Prohibitionist policies have hardly worked anywhere,'' Fox told me. ``Prohibition of alcohol in the United States [in the 1920's] never worked, and it only helped trigger violence and crime.''

Since possession of small amounts of marijuana has already been decriminalized in Mexico, what's needed now are bolder steps, such as legalizing drug production ...

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