To Legalize

On August 3rd, President Calderón called for a national debate on the merits and dangers of legalizing currently illicit drugs. This sparked an immediate and prolific discussion in the Mexican press. Here is one example, a column by Hector Aguilar Camin, who is an historian and editor of the monthly magazine, Nexos. The Spanish original can be found at Legalizar

Column by Hector Aguilar Camin

in Milenio, August 5, 2010

One of the major mental restrictions regarding the problem of drug trafficking is that one can hardly think outside the logic of the punitive consensus that governs  government action in this matter. The central notion of this consensus is that drugs should be prohibited and, therefore, persecuted. A global political agreement determines both of these positions -- leaving no room for other approaches. Governments, media and citizens are trapped in a world of persecution, within the premises of this punitive consensus.

We must take a step outside the circle of punitive consensus in order to be able to think about the drug issue in its other dimensions of morality and customs, consumption and market, public health, freedom, and personal responsibility. Although consideration of these dimensions is far from being a novelty in the world, it has no space in the Mexican discussion about drug trafficking. Living in the shadow of the consensus imposed half a century ago by the United States, Mexico is absorbed in the infernal circle of persecution and murder.

Half a century after the assumption of this consensus, U.S. drug consumption has not fallen; instead, movements for the legalization of marijuana thrive. These movements challenge the axioms of persecution as being the only solution. Equally with Colombia, Mexico has paid a heavy price for pursuing drugs. Mexico has the right, I would say it also has the duty, to put forward in self-defense the option of legalizing drugs. The least that Mexico should do, in this regard, is to open its own space for analysis of the desirability of legalization and its effects over against the costs of persecution and its effects.

Taking just one step outside the punitive consensus, the absurdity that anyone should be persecuted, imprisoned or killed for planting or selling marijuana, cocaine or whatever other drug becomes evident. Each variety of what we call drugs requires a separate analysis. Each drug must be regulated according to its peculiar characteristics and subject to rules in its production and consumption, as happens with other addictive substances with proven disastrous consequences for public health, like alcohol or tobacco.

But putting whole countries on a war footing so they cannot manufacture or sell substances whose equivalents, regulated and unregulated, exist in the legal market, is a logical and moral aberration: a punitive whim of recent world history.
acamin@milenio.com