Whack-a-mole: As Drug War Rages, What Could Obama, Calderon Do Differently?

A PBS NewsHour interview with Eric Olson of the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center. 


Once again, the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center avoids talking about drug legalization as an alternative to the war on drugs whack-a-mole strategy, even though Mr. Olsen acknowledges that the lack of results from this strategy has to do, in part, "...with problems of consumption in the United States that we haven't been very successful at dealing with."


We have to believe that this failure of logic is related to the fact that the Wilson Center is a government sponsored, partially government funded institution, similar to the Smithsonian. 


Also, while the interview is entitled ""What Could Obama, Calderon Do Differently?" the interviewer does not follow up on Mr. Olsen's admission about drug consumption being the problem and raise the option of legalization. (Remember, President Obama himself has now said it is okay to discuss it.)

As Drug War Rages, What Could Obama, Calderon Do Differently? | PBS NewsHour | March 3, 2011 | PBS: "HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, so how do we measure this, success or failure? If we started to look at the number of arrests or the number of pounds of drugs seized, it would look like a success, but then those staggering numbers of the people that are killed every year....

ERIC OLSON: Well, I mean, I think both countries are trying very hard. There's no question about it. The problem has been one of effectiveness.

The number of killings, as we said, have gone up. You know, the price and availability of drugs in the United States remains about the same. So, we haven't had a major impact on that. And there's just a host of various criterions that would suggest that, if they were being successful, they would come down or show improvements. And, thus far, it hasn't happened. ... It has to do with problems of consumption in the United States that we haven't been very successful at dealing with."
"