Costa Rica Joins Call for Drug Legalization Debate

by Phillip Smith,
March 02, 2012

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla has added her voice to the rising clamor for discussions on drug legalization as an alternative to the current state of affairs, in which Central American nations see themselves as increasingly threatened by the illicit drug trade. The discussion should go on even if the US opposes it, Chinchilla said.

"If we keep doing what we have been when the results today are worse than 10 years ago, we'll never get anywhere and could wind up like Mexico or Colombia," Chinchilla said in San Jose Wednesday in remarks reported by Bloomberg Business News. There needs to be a "serious" discussion of legalization even if the US disagrees, because Central American nations are "paying a very high price" and "we have the right to discuss it," she added.

Chinchilla made her remarks the same day as she met with Guatemalan Deputy President Roxanni Baldetti de Paz and a day after she met with US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. That same day, Napolitano said the US position is that drug legalization "is not the way" to stop the drug traffic.

She joins Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina in calling for regional legalization discussions. Perez Molina said last month that he was open to legalizing the use and transport of drugs as part of a crackdown on heavily-armed Mexican drug trafficking organizations whose corrosive influence has been seeping into Central America in recent years.

Perez Molina has been making the rounds seeking more regional support for his proposal. Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes first seemed to support the notion, then backed away from it, while Panama has rejected the idea outright. So did Honduras, with President Porfirio Lobo saying legalization would make his country "a paradise" for drug traffickers.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has not taken a position one way or the other, but said in January that as long the US "continues to fail to control the consumption of drugs, it continues to contaminate and poison this region."

Last month, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said the Calderon administration was open to an international discussion of drug legalization. But, like Chinchilla, she was quick to caution that legalization wouldn't mean the defeat of organized crime.

Regional concern about the issue as the Mexican drug traffickers have expanded their presence, bringing both increased drug trafficking and heightened levels of violence with them. In its annual report, released Monday, the International Narcotics Control Board warned that trafficking levels have reached "alarming and unprecedented" heights, and that cocaine being transshipped through the region may be worth as much as 5% of the region's gross domestic product.

stopthedrugwar

VP Biden Visiting Latin America Amid Drug Legalization Debate

By Steve Elliott
Saturday, March 3, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden will get an earful from Latin American presidents who are weary of the failed War On Drugs

Vice President Joe Biden is heading to Mexico and Honduras on Sunday in the midst of rapidly escalating demands by Latin American leaders that legalization should be included among the options for reducing drug-related violence, crime and mayhem.

The presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico, all struggling to stem the violence associated with a failing Drug War, have said in recent weeks they'd like to have a discussion on legalizing drugs, reports Martha Mendoza of The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru already allow the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, and the leaders of Brazil and Colombia are discussing alternatives to jailing drug users.

"U.S. government officials are worried because the smartest among them know that the current strategy, both domestically and internationally, cannot be defended on economic, scientific or ethical grounds," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).


Ethan Nadelmann DPA: "I hope Biden learns that 'staying the course' is not going to be an option for the U.S. for much longer"

"What we're witnessing is the evolution from the failed prohibitionist policies of the 20th century to a 21st century drug control regime in which military, police and criminals will play a much diminished role," Nadelmann said.

"It's a different moment when you have actual heads of state talking about the need for a thorough debate on this," said John Walsh, a drug policy specialist at the Washington Office on Latin America, an independent think tank. "It's certainly different for sitting presidents to be uttering those words. You wouldn't have thought it possible just a few years ago."

Vice President Biden expects a "robust conversation" about the security problems in Latin American countries due to drug traffickers battling to control lucrative sales to the United States, said Dan Restrepo, the top Latin America official in the White House, when he briefed reporters about Biden's upcoming trip.

"Biden will hear, for the first time, from more than one foreign president, that the combination of U.S. demand for illicit drugs combined with the U.S. drug war strategy is wreaking havoc in the region, is increasingly untenable, AND that the regional leaders are going to proceed with a serious dialogue about alternatives to failed prohibitionist strategies," Nadelmann told Toke of the Town on Saturday morning.

Dan Restepo, senior White House advisor on Latin America: "The Obama administration has been quite clear in our opposition to decriminalization or legalization of illicit drugs"

"I suspect that they will make clear that U.S. participation in this dialogue is welcome, and essential in the long term, but that they intend to proceed whether or not the U.S. government approves," Nadelmann told us.

But Restrepo said Latin American leaders should expect any shift in U.S. drug policy.

"The Obama administration has been quite clear in our opposition to decriminalization or legalization of illicit drugs," Restrepo said (but that could have been a Drug War robot speaking).

But the time is coming when the same tired, knee-jerk responses to the issue of illicit drugs won't be acceptable in the United States, either.

"The U.S. government will join the debate when the option of suppressing or ignoring it is no longer viable," Nadelmann told Toke of the Town. "The more that U.S. political, diplomatic, intelligence, business, media and other leaders hear from their counterparts in Latin American that a fundamentally new dialogue and policy reform are essential, the more the U.S. government will find itself drawn into the debate."

Biden is scheduled to arrive in Mexico City on Sunday to discuss "economic and security issues" with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. He also plans to meet on Monday with the three top Mexican presidential candidates running for a six-year term to replace Calderon this year.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla has said she's open to discussing legalization

On Tuesday, Biden plans to travel to Honduras to meet President Porfirio Lobo, along with the presidents of El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala, all struggling with the expanding influence of powerful drug cartels.

Drug gangs have killed tens of thousands of citizens, while prisons are overflowing with accused drug users and the powerful cartels corrupt the political process with huge amounts of money (sheesh, sounds like the United States, eh?)

"I do think that the issue of legalization will be raised by the leaders to Biden, but in private," said Walter McKay, a policing expert on security issues in Mexico, which has seen a river of blood -- with 47,500 people killed -- since President Calderon declared a War On Drugs in 2006.

"I hope Biden learns that 'staying the course' is not going to be an option for the U.S. for much longer," Nadelmann told Toke of the Town.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, a right wing conservative and former army general, stunned political observers when he said the inability of the United States to cut illegal drug consumption leaves his country with no option but to consider legalizing the use and transport of drugs. He vowed to rally regional support for legalization.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla and El Salvadoran President Carlos Funes have since said they're open to discussing legalization, while Panama's leaders -- more under the thumb of the U.S. than their neighbors -- have said they "do not agree" with legalizing drugs.

In 2009, the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico all blasted the War On Drugs and said it was time to consider the decriminalization of marijuana. Last summer they were joined by high-profile international leaders including former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former U.S. officials George P. Shultz and Paul Volcker, who slammed the War On Drugs as a failure and called on governments to investigate the legalization of drugs, especially marijuana, to reduce the power of organized crime.

But it's another thing entirely when sitting presidents call for drug legalization, said retired Brazilian judge Maria Lucia Karam in an email to The Associated Press.

Karam said that while Latin American leaders were at first willing to try a "get tough" policy, they've been worn down by the Drug War's deadly toll.

"Ultimately this is about allowing democratic conversations to take place without being leaned upon by the U.S.," said Danny Kushlick, who heads the London-based Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

tokeofthetown

In Mexico, Biden Rejects Drug Legalization Talk

by Phillip Smith,
March 06, 2012

On the first day of a two-day trip to consult with Mexican and Central American leaders Monday, US Vice President Joe Biden was quick to pooh-pooh any talk about drug legalization. The topic has become an increasingly hot one in the region, as Mexico's drug wars bleed over into its neighbors to the south, and some regional leaders are now calling for discussion of legalization.


"It's worth discussing, but there is no possibility the Obama/Biden administration will change its policy on legalization," he said after meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

"It's worth debating in order to lay to rest some of the myths that are associated with the notion of legalization. The debate always occurs, understandably, in the context of serious violence that occurs with the society, particularly in societies that don't have the institutional framework and the structure to deal with organized, illicit operations," he said in remarks reported by the Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers.

Biden, who said he had spent "thousands of hours" at Senate hearings on the issue, said that while drug legalization could do positive things like reducing prison populations, it would lead to more drug use, health problems, and even more bureaucracies.

"It impacts on a country's productivity. It impacts on the health costs of that country. It impacts on mortality rates," Biden said. He added that legalization wouldn't work "unless you are going to not only legalize but you are going to provide a government apparatus for the distribution of the drugs."

Biden's primary purpose for his visit to Mexico City was to meet with the leading contenders in the country's July 1 presidential election, but that has been overshadowed by the legalization debate heating up in the region.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos last fall called for an international discussion of drug legalization, but said he would be crucified if he led it. Last month, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, a right-leaning former military officer, called for regional discussions on the issue, and picked up support from Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla last week, but not Honduran President Porfirio Lobo or Panamanian leader Richardo Martinelli. Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes first signaled support, but then wavered, while Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has yet to announce a position.

All the Central American leaders will meet with Biden Tuesday.

Santos will host the Summit of the Americas April 14-15 in Cartagena, Colombia. He has said drug policies should be debated then. Perez Molina also wants the discussion to get underway there. President Obama is expected to be in attendance.

stopthedrugwar

Visiting Drug-War-Torn Central America, Joe Biden Says the U.S. Will Not Change Drug Strategy

By Kristen Gwynne
Posted at March 6, 2012


Vice President Joe Biden visited Mexico on Monday, and meets with Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, and other Central American leaders, today. His trip to the drug-war ravaged region is punctuated by a sharp increase in Central American leaders' calls for legalization, but Biden said Monday that legalization is only something "worth discussing," adding that the Obama Administration will not change its strategy.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, issued a statement explaining three key take-aways from Biden's comments. Nadelmann says that while Biden's words send a message that legalization should not be scoffed at, they also prove that U.S. legislators have not given legalization the thought it deserves. The U.S., Nadelmann says, is in need of a leader who will truly consider legalization, because so long as we live with prohibition, voices to end the drug war's disastrous consequences will continue to amplify.

Vice President Biden’s comment that “there is no possibility that the Obama-Biden administration will change its policy on legalization” should come as no surprise. That comment is consistent with longstanding U.S. policy, and it’s hard to imagine the administration wanting this debate to open up in an election year.

First, the Vice President did acknowledge that "it is totally legitimate for this to be raised” and “it’s worth discussing.” That’s more than he has previously conceded on the issue. It’s consistent with President Obama’s comment on January 27, 2011 – that legalization is “an entirely legitimate topic for debate.” And it sends a message to the drug czar and other federal officials who to date have rejected any such discussion out of hand that it’s now OK to at least talk about it, and perhaps engage the growing debate.

Second, what’s most striking about Biden’s comments on the subject is the flimsiness of his arguments. To focus, as he reportedly did, on the need, with legalization, to create “a costly bureaucracy to regulate the drugs and new addicts” while downplaying the fact that any such bureaucracy would cost a small fraction of what it currently costs instead to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate millions of people for drug law violations, seems absurd. “The debate,” he said, “always occurs, understandably, in the context of serious violence that occurs with the society, particularly in societies that don't have the institutional framework and the structure to deal with organized, illicit operations." But it’s worth pointing out that the debate over legalization has been most vigorous with respect to marijuana, and in countries like The Netherlands, which don’t jibe with the context Biden says is central. The shallowness of the Vice President’s comments reflects the fact that this administration, like its predecessors, has not yet bothered to even think seriously about alternatives to current policies.

And third, Biden’s public comments rejecting legalization, combined with whatever private pressures are applied by him and other U.S. officials to shut down the burgeoning debate, will almost certainly not end the discussion. Not when the Global Commission on Drug Policy, whose members include George Shultz, Paul Volcker, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Ernesto Zedillo, Cesar Gaviria, Javier Solana and others of comparable distinction, has made an impressive case both for reforming drug control policies and “breaking the taboo” on public debate. Not when Presidents Felipe Calderon, Juan Manuel Santos, Otto Perez Molina, Laura Chinchilla and others have each joined their call in various ways. Not when prominent business and other civic leaders increasingly are doing so as well. And not so long as the punitive, prohibitionist policies promoted by the U.S. government continue to wreak such great havoc in so many parts of the world.

Colombia’s President Santos, who was the first president to speak publicly, beginning in late 2011, in support of legalization, reportedly had been looking for other presidents to join him in stepping out. He’s now found just the sort of ally he needs in Guatemala’s new president, Otto Perez Molina. It’s long been said that a “Nixon goes to China” scenario is the best option for really opening up the debate about alternatives to failed prohibitionist policies. Otto Perez Molina is a political conservative and a former general who played a pivotal role two decades ago in securing the military’s agreement to the peace agreement that ended the country’s long civil war. He’s just started his four year term, and is moving forward strategically to ensure that this crucial debate is not foreclosed. This issue will be on the agenda at the annual Summit of the Americas in Cartagena in April, and in national, regional and international gatherings thereafter.

Whoever is in the White House for the next four years is going to need to step up their game in this debate. Because now it’s not going away.

American citizens, too, are increasingly turning towards legalization. Voters in Washington and Colorado will decide whether to legalize marijuana this November, and for the first time, 50% of Americans support legalizing pot, not only medically, but recreationally. The Obama administration, however, is not responding to public opinion, but leading a federal attack on medical marijuana legalized by state voters. Perhaps more shocking than the government's refusal to consider calls for legalization is the people's complacency. For how long will we allow the government to lead a war that is against us?

AlterNet

The Prohibition of Ideas: Latin America's Rapidly Increasing, Historic Calls for Legalization Meet Staunch U.S. Resistance

Amid a dramatic turn of events in the drug policy debate, the challenge will be to sustain this momentum, even as the U.S. government works desperately to suppress it.

By Ethan Nadelmann
March 12, 2012 |

Something incredible is happening right now in Latin America.

After decades of being brutalized by the U.S. government's failed prohibitionist drug policies, Latin American leaders, including not just distinguished former presidents but also current presidents, are saying "enough is enough." They're demanding that the range of policy options be expanded to include alternatives that help reduce the crime, violence and corruption in their own countries -- and insisting that decriminalization and legal regulation of currently illicit drug markets be considered.

Guatemala's new president, Otto Perez Molina, is providing important leadership. As a political conservative and former general, he has credibility that others lack. When he started speaking out publicly last month about the need to consider new drug policy options including legalization, many observers thought it was just a ploy to secure greater economic and military aid from the United States. But he's demonstrated a commitment and engagement over the past month that have persuaded fellow presidents that he's serious about this. Within Guatemala, his initiative has been praised by diverse voices including prominent business leaders, Archbishop Oscar Julio Vian and the head of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), Francisco Dall'Anese.

President Perez Molina sent his vice president, Roxana Baldetti, on a tour of neighboring countries two weeks ago to seek the support of other Central American presidents for opening up a new discussion on drug policy alternatives for the region. Most said they were willing to join the discussion. (It probably helped that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was also touring the region that week, and alienating regional leaders with unsubstantiated claims that the drug war was working.) Now the presidents have agreed to come to Guatemala on March 24 for a wide-ranging debate on the subject.

Meanwhile, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, who had been eager to open the debate but reportedly frustrated by the failure of other regional leaders to join him, appears to have been galvanized by the Guatemalan president's initiative. He met yesterday with former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil), Ricardo Lagos (Chile) and Felipe González (Spain) to talk about the best way to raise this issue at the Summit of the Americas meeting in Cartagena in April.

Mexican President Calderon also seems increasingly willing to engage. Having waged a multi-year battle with criminal organizations whose principal source of revenue is the illicit drug traffic to the United States, no one has greater moral authority to call for alternatives to failed prohibitionist policies. And no one knows better that one cannot win a war against what is essentially a dynamic global commodities market, especially when one's country abuts the largest consumer market in the world. He put his toes in the water last year when he started saying that the United States should consider "market alternatives" if it were unable to reduce its demand for illegal drugs. And he followed up by joining with regional leaders in late 2011 in the "Tuxtla Declaration," which stated that if the demand for illegal drugs could not be reduced, "authorities in the consuming countries ought then to explore possible alternatives to eliminate the exorbitant profits of the criminals, including regulatory or market oriented options to this end. Thus, the transit of substances that continue provoking high levels of crime and violence in Latin American and Caribbean nations will be avoided."

Calls for drug policy reform are proliferating rapidly in Mexico. Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, pulls no punches in saying that legalization is the best approach. Fox's predecessor, Ernesto Zedillo, joined with former Brazilian president Cardoso and former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria in organizing first a Latin American and then a Global Commission on Drug Policy, both of which called for major reform of drug policies, including legal regulation of marijuana, and also for "breaking the taboo" on considering all drug policy options, including legal regulation.

Now business leaders in Monterrey and Mexico City, wary of the growing power of criminal organizations, are joining the debate with sophistication, resources and support for legalization in one form or another. And, from the left, Javier Sicilia, the influential poet turned social justice movement leader, is saying much the same.

It's thus no surprise that Mexican foreign secretary Patricia Espinosa announced at a meeting of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly in late February that her government now supported a debate on legalization.

Honduran President Porfirio Lobos announced on Friday that Presidents Calderon and Santos had both been invited to the meeting in Guatemala on March 24, and were considering attending.

All this presents a dilemma for the U.S. government. When Vice President Biden visited the region last week, he made clear that the Obama administration firmly opposes legalization -- but also acknowledged, as President Obama had in early 2011, that the topic was a legitimate subject for discussion. That modest concession was important, not least in sending a clear message to other federal officials, including the drug czar, senior diplomats and Pentagon officials, that outright rejection of any discussion was no longer required. It manifested yesterday when the State Department's (Acting) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Mike Hammer, stated that "We are, of course, willing to discuss the issue to express our opinion as far as why we do not see it as the best way in which to address the problem." "It is, he continued, "a serious subject and we are not in any way opposed to discussing it. Our position, though, is very clear." Latin American media quickly picked up on the slight change of tone from Washington.

This all represents a dramatic turn of events in the regional, and potentially, global debate about drug policy. In Latin America, current presidents are now taking the baton from ex-presidents in calling for a new drug policy debate with all options on the table. Respected intellectuals like Carlos Fuentes and Enrique Krauze in Mexico, Sergio Ramirez in Nicaragua and Mario Vargas Llosa in Peru are speaking out. So are distinguished former cabinet ministers as well as leaders in business, media and the arts.

The immediate political challenge will be to sustain this momentum in the face of vigorous behind-the-scenes efforts by the U.S. government to suppress the debate, notwithstanding public statements that they're open to it. The more substantive challenge will be to flesh out proposals for alternative strategies. Presidents Santos, Otto Perez Molina and others know full well that no nation can unilaterally legalize drugs, that any significant changes in direction must be pursued multilaterally, and that major reform of the failed global drug prohibition regime of the 20th century will take years and likely decades. Governments as well as non-governmental organizations in the region are just beginning to look seriously at alternative drug policy options, enlisting scholars and other policy experts.

Fortunately the drug war consensus within the United States is also dissolving. George Shultz, the former Secretary of State (and Treasury) and Paul Volcker are among the members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, whose bold recommendations last June stirred debate worldwide. Former President Jimmy Carter has endorsed the Global Commission's recommendations and former President Bill Clinton has repeatedly expressed regrets for the drug war excesses he condoned when he was in the White House. African-American leaders who previously supported the drug war are coming to the conclusion that it did nothing to lessen drug addiction on their communities but much to incarcerate an extraordinary number of young men and women.

Public support for legalizing marijuana is rising rapidly -- from 36 percent in favor in 2006 to 50 percent in 2011, according to Gallup's polling. And this past week, the conservative Evangelical Christian leader, Pat Robertson, surprised lots of people by saying marijuana should be legally regulated like alcohol, and by endorsing ballot initiatives in Colorado and Washington State that would do just that if they prevail this November.

The biggest obstacle right now is the head-in-the-sand resistance within the Obama administration and Congress to any real discussion of alternative drug policy options. Censorship and self-censorship in this area within the federal government is endemic, driven by fears that any internal policy memos, or even oral discussions, that conclude with politically inconvenient recommendations, are not just unwelcome but dangerous to one's standing and career. One result is that U.S. government officials will be increasingly handicapped in the international drug policy discussions at Cartagena and elsewhere, armed only with defenses of failed U.S. policies but bereft of any in-depth analysis of the options that other governments are putting on the table.

The worst prohibition, it must be said, is a prohibition on thinking -- and that, sadly, is what the U.S. government is guilty of today.


AlterNet


Ethan Nadelmann is founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

I wish they would just tell the U.S. to suck it and make weed legal