Former President Fox: “Legalize Drugs”
Mexico’s former President, Vicente Fox, joins the growing chorus of Latin American ex-presidents calling for an end on the war on drugs. He’s proposing an open debate on drug legalization.
It’s a shame, though, that these leaders wait until they are out of office to voice their opposition to Washington’s prohibitionist drug strategy. While it’s true, as Fox points out, that any step towards legalization in the region must be supported by the United States, Latin American presidents skeptical of the status quo could use the pulpits at the United Nations, Organization of American States, or the Summits of the Americas to denounce the war on drugs and call for different approaches.
Still, Fox’s opinion on the matter is welcome.
Filed under: International Economics and Development; Law and Civil Liberties
Former Prosecutor, Judge Calls for Drug Legalization
Many of those most involved in the drug war both at home and abroad recognize that it is an expensive failure, having had little impact of drug consumption while fostering crime and undermining civil liberties. In fact, many former cops, prosecutors, and judges have joined together in Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
A former Orange County, California prosecutor and judge who once locked up drug offenders now advocates relaxing the drug laws. The Los Angeles Times has just published Steve Lopez’s interview with Jim Gray:
All right, tell me this doesn’t sound a little strange:
I’m sitting in Costa Mesa with a silver-haired gent who once ran for Congress as a Republican and used to lock up drug dealers as a federal prosecutor, a man who served as an Orange County judge for 25 years. And what are we talking about? He’s begging me to tell you we need to legalize drugs in America.
“Please quote me,” says Jim Gray, insisting the war on drugs is hopeless. “What we are doing has failed.”
As far as I can tell, Gray is not off his rocker. He’s not promoting drug use, he says for clarification. Anything but. If he had his way, half the revenue we would generate from taxing and regulating drugs would be plowed back into drug prevention education, and there’d be rehab on demand.
So here he is in coat and tie — with a U.S. flag lapel pin — eating his oatmeal and making perfect sense, even when talking about the way President Obama flippantly dismissed a question about legalizing marijuana last week during a White House news conference.
“Politicians get reelected talking tough regarding the war on drugs,” says Gray. “Do you want to hear the speech? Vote for Gray. I will put drug dealers in jail and save your children.”
I had gone to visit Gray in part to discuss his support for a bill introduced last month by Democratic San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who is calling for marijuana to be regulated and taxed much like alcohol.
There’s no good answer to drug abuse. But turning a health problem into a criminal law problem certainly is not the answer. It’s time to take the immense profit out of the drug market as have other countries, such as Portugal, which has decriminalized drug use.
Debating the War on Drugs in Mexico
Yesterday I was invited to Pajamas TV to discuss the increasingly violent situation in Mexico, where the drug-related death toll continues to skyrocket. The other guest was journalist Matt Sanchez.
The discussion rapidly turned into a debate with Sanchez on the merits of drug legalization as an alternative to the current mayhem. If you’re interested in the topic, the video is available here, and the audio here.
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