I wrote a diary yesterday about Mexico changing its drug laws in leiu of Harm Reduction policies.
Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Columbia have defied the conservative neo-totalitarianist philosophy of class and race war via the "drug war" by implementing Harm Reduction policies. In Europe, Portugal has joined the Netherlands in sane, decriminalized drug policy.
Drug users are sick. They need health care, not jail.
The best news in this article is that the Obama administration hasn't complained about Mexico's implementation of Seattle-like Harm Reduction policies.
Mexico now has one of the world's most liberal laws for drug users after eliminating jail time for small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and even heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.
The article goes on to explain the worries of police about drug tourists braving kidnapping and murder to go to Mexico for what they can get anywhere in America.
The problem with that thinking is that Portugal and Holland and every other country that has introduced Harm Reduction policies saws their drug abuse rates drop.
Enacted last week, the Mexican law is part of a growing trend across Latin America to treat drug use as a public health problem and make room in overcrowded prisons for violent traffickers rather than small-time users.
The article goes on to explain that Brazil and Uruguay have eliminated jail time for simple possession of drugs (still illegal) the Columbia has decriminalized simple possession of marijuana and cocaine.
Interestingly enough, the article mentions the fact that drug use increased by 50% during President Calderon's cartel crackdown.
That means 50% increase in profits to the cartels.
To take profits from the goons, governments need to implement Harm Reduction drug policies that focus on reducing harm to society. Drug dealers harm society. So take their profits away: decriminalize hard drugs, treat the addicts, and legalize non-toxic God-given plants where possible (starting with marijuana).
Now for the best part of the article:
The Bush administration criticized a similar bill proposed in Mexico in 2006, prompting then-President Vicente Fox to send it back to Congress. But Washington has stayed quiet this time, praising Calderon for his fight against drug cartels — a struggle that has seen some 11,000 people killed since Calderon took office in 2006.
http://www.google.com/...
My bold.
After we get health care reform and energy policy reform, I fully expect to see the war on Americans to be addressed.