September 28, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation
The secretary general of the Organization of American States
(OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said yesterday in the Senate that the strategy to
combat drug trafficking in the region has been wrong because it has focused solely
on the repression of the supply of narcotics and not on attacking the economic
power of the drug cartels, which has become increasingly violent.
He called for decriminalization of marijuana, and warned
that focusing efforts only on the sale of drugs, without taking institutional
actions aimed at tackling the financial structures and money laundering will lead
to “a war without end”.
In the forum “From Prohibition to Regulation: New Approaches
to Drug Policy” Insulza said that according to a report by experts from the OAS,
the drug trade generates 154 billion dollars a year, of which 77 billion is
laundered in the global financial system.
Also in the Senate but in another forum, Undersecretary of
Prevention and Citizen Participation of the Ministry of the Interior, Roberto
Campa said that despite the intense debate in the U.S. on the decriminalization
of drugs like marijuana, the violence that the drug trade generates will not change
radically in the region in the coming years.
Separately, Insulza explained that this report - that heads
of state and government gathered in Cartagena last year commissioned the OAS to
develop –stressed to open the debate on the decriminalization of drug use. He
explained that 45 percent of the cocaine trafficked in the world, half of
heroin and a quarter of the total marijuana and an increased the use of
amphetamines is consumed in the Americas.
He stressed that according to the study, rather than
decrease, the growing illegal drug trade business has given rise to an
important set of economic groups and criminal organizations that leave a trail
of money and violence.
During this forum, PRD and PAN legislators argued that
discussion whether to legalize marijuana in Mexico cannot wait. The PRD party
member Mario Delgado explained that the Senate is working on the revision of
the General Health Law, in order to facilitate scientific and medical use of
the drug.
The PAN party member Roberto Gil Zuarth said that the debate
on the use and legalization of marijuana is an issue that cannot wait, but must
have a different strategy to end or contain the impact of violence.
However, Campa Cifrián doubted that the decriminalization of
marijuana in the United States would reduce violence. During a session of the
work group of the Committee of Safety, Combat and Prevention of Drug Trafficking,
Terrorism and Organized Crime of the Latin American Parliament, the official
stated that this problem has a set of structural causes, which are basically
defined by our location geographic.
“We have a three thousand mile border with a country that
offers many advantages, but it also is the largest consumer of drugs in the
world and that means permanent movement of drugs, weapons, illegal money and
people.”
Translated by Nidia Bautista
No comments:
Post a Comment