(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jonathan M. Katz writes that Drug War Has Failed And Governments Should Explore Legalizing Marijuana.
The global war on drugs has failed and governments should explore legalizing marijuana and other controlled substances, according to a commission that includes former heads of state, a former U.N. secretary-general and a business mogul.
A new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy argues that the decades-old "global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world." The 24-page paper will be released Thursday.
"Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won," the report said.
This Commission is not some fringe bunch of pot-heads. ... Well as far as we know, but whatever their personal habits, the commission includes some "highly" respectable folks.
Jose de Cordoba of the Wall Street Journal writes reports,
The 19-member commission includes a broad spectrum: former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia...Former Secretary of State George Shultz and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker are on the commission...
In the report, Mr. Gaviria blasted the impact of U.S.-led antidrug efforts on already hard-pressed state institutions like the police and courts in countries throughout Latin America. "We can no longer ignore the extent to which drug-related violence, crime and corruption in Latin America are the results of failed drug war policies," he wrote.
Guatemala last month declared martial law in the jungle province of Peten after gunmen believed to be members of Mexico's brutal Zetas cartel, which has spread throughout Latin America, beheaded 27 people.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, "Let's start treating drug addiction as a health issue, reducing drug demand through proven educational initiatives, and legally regulating rather than criminalizing cannabis," Mr. Cardoso said in a statement. Bruce Bagley, an expert on drug trafficking and Latin America at the University of Miami. ... He said that in the U.S. there is little or nothing to show for it "except for the warehousing of some 600,000 people a year on drug-related offenses in prison at huge cost."
Needless to say the US government disagrees, and our White House Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske "said the report was misguided."
I favor an experiment where we start by decriminalizing, or even legalizing marijuana, and allowing citizens to grow enough for their private use.
And, I have many times recommended that President Obama pardon all of the 600,000 people prision for drugs, who were non-violent. At, $50,000 per person per year, savings money could go to Medicare.