Legalization: Mexicans, US question drug legalization proposal

Here is more on the Mexican debate over drug legalization

Mexicans, US question drug legalization proposal: "A former Mexican president's (Vicente Fox) proposal to legalize drugs as a way of breaking the economic power of drug cartels is stoking debate inside his country and bringing opposition in Washington. One thing most experts agreed on is that the idea is unlikely to prosper without similar moves to legalize or regulate the sale of drugs in the United States, the main consumer of drugs from Mexico. ...

The U.S. State Department said Monday that "the question of debating the legalization of drugs is for Mexicans to decide." But a State Department spokeswoman who was not authorized to be quoted by name also said that the department's position is that "we don't believe legalization is the answer." ...

Jorge Chabat, a Mexican expert on drug cartels, said that "in my opinion, legalize everything and regulate everything ... that could really affect the finances of the drug cartels, especially if the government were the supplier" of drugs. Chabat said if the U.S. doesn't take that path, "they won't be able to do it here ... the pressure of the United States would be brutal." ...

President Calderon (who opposes legalization) said, in a weekend radio interview, "If there isn't a generalized, universal legalization policy across the world, and mainly in the main drug consumer, the United States, there won't even be any economic benefits, because the price is determined by the American market."" August 10, 2010, AP

AMB editor's comment: On what does the US State Department (and the Obama administration) base its '"belief" that legalization is not the answer?

Legalization: Marijuana legalization in Mexico gaining support

This article, from the Dallas Morning News, on the growing debate in Mexico over drug legalization includes responses by David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego and, on the other side of the question, Gail Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy 

Marijuana legalization in Mexico gaining support : "Law professor Alejandro Madrazo Lajous ... is the attorney for an organization at the forefront of the growing legalization movement in Mexico, (and) one of its most ardent advocates. 'Seeing the destruction of my country because of the war on drugs, I began to realize the importance of debating the idea,' said Madrazo,  ... an attorney for the Collective for an Integral Policy on Drugs. ....

David Shirk: "It would be very difficult for Mexico to legalize when its northern neighbor, the most powerful country in the world, is against legalization. Mexico could not do that unilaterally without provoking a very strong political reaction from the United States. ... I don't think that marijuana legalization will be a panacea on drug violence in Mexico, but legalization could change the nature of the fight. Drugs are so much more profitable than any other form of illicit activity. You take away that profitability, and you cripple the organizations' ability to corrupt the state.""

Gail Kerlikowske: Take marijuana out of the equation and "all the things they are involved in, all these incredibly horrible crimes, of which narcotics is only a part, would still go on. Calderón has been very firm, and very strict, on his opposition to legalizing drugs."" August 10, 2010, Dallas Morning News. 


AMB editor's comment re. Kerlikowske's statement: How does the fact that the cartels commit crimes other than drug trafficking justify continuing the war on drugs? If drug trade and use were made legal, the U.S. would be removed from being engaged in a militarized war in Mexico, the cartels would lose billions of dollars a year and the government of Mexico would be left to deal with the issues of crime, public security and corruption, which, along with poverty and lack of jobs, are the real issues in Mexico. (See today's post on the Federal Police fighting among themselves over corruption charges.) Through the Merida Initiative, the U.S. is already providing significant support to the Mexican government to address issues in its criminal justice system. Freeing up monies from the drug war would enable the U.S. to provide even more such aid if it so desired. 

Whack-a-mole: Mexican federal police in Cuidad Juarez clash with commander. Attorney General's office to investigate in corruption probe

Groups of Mexican federal police clash over allegations: "Hundreds of Mexican federal police officers from two opposing groups clashed in Ciudad Juarez over the weekend over allegations of corruption within their ranks. On Saturday, a three-day protest turned into a riot between two opposing groups of the federal police department. The confrontation was triggered by corruption allegations against federal police Cmdr. Salomon Alarcon Romero. Alarcon's critics say the commander has participated in kidnappings, killings and extortion in Juarez, which borders U.S. city El Paso, Texas." August 8, 2010, CNN

Mexico to investigate federal officers in corruption probe : "Mexico's Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation into allegations of corruption within the federal police in Juarez. The investigation is in response to an uprising by hundreds of federal police officers on Saturday against some of their commanders, whom they accused of taking money and having connections to drug traffickers. The commanders were taken into custody at gunpoint, handcuffed and smacked around by their ski-masked subordinates, who claimed corruption was putting their lives at risk."August 10, 2010, Las Cruces Sun-News, New Mexico

Whack-a-mole: Texas gov. asks Obama for more troops for Texas-Mexico border

The Republican governor of Arizona has been getting a lot of attention from the Feds, with Oval Office chats and multiple visits of cabinet secretaries (a case of the mountain coming to Muhammed). Now it appears that the governor of Texas is envious and wants his share of attention.

Texas gov. asks Obama for more troops for Texas-Mexico border: "Republican Gov. Rick Perry hand-delivered a letter as President Obama emerged from Air Force One in Austin, Texas, repeating his demand that the government send 1,000 troops to the Texas-Mexico border. The letter, released to the news media by the governor's office, also repeated Perry's request to meet with Obama and his secretaries of homeland security and defense to discuss what he described as the increasing danger along the border." August 9, 2010, Washington Post

Immigration Crackdown: Fingerprint sharing led to deportation of 47,000

Fingerprint sharing led to deportation of 47,000: " Records show that about 47,000 people were removed or deported from the U.S. after the Homeland Security Department sifted through 3 million sets of fingerprints taken from bookings at local jails. About one-quarter of those kicked out of the country did not have criminal records, according to government data obtained by immigration advocacy groups that filed a lawsuit. The groups plan to release the data Tuesday and provided early copies to The Associated Press.

"ICE has pulled a bait and switch, with local law enforcement spending more time and resources facilitating the deportations of bus boys and gardeners than murderers and rapists and at considerable cost to local community policing strategies, making us all less safe," (emphasis added) said Peter Markowitz, director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. Markowitz's clinic, the National Day Laborer Organizers Network and the Center for Constitutional Rights had requested and sued for the statistics. Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted some of the documents on its website late Monday." August 10, 2010, AP

Ex-Mexico president calls for legalizing drugs

Ex-Mexico president calls for legalizing drugs: "Former President Vicente Fox is joining with those urging his successor to legalize drugs in Mexico, saying that could break the economic power of the country's brutal drug cartels.
Fox's comments, posted Sunday on his blog, came less than a week after President Felipe Calderon agreed to open the door to discussions about the legalization of drugs, even though he stressed that he remained opposed to the idea." August 8, 2010, AP

War on drugs: why the US and Latin America could be ready to end a fruitless 40-year struggle

President Calderón's opening up of debate on drug legalization continues to get coverage outside the U.S. We have found no mention of it in the U.S. press. 

War on drugs: why the US and Latin America could be ready to end a fruitless 40-year struggle: "Mexico's President Felipe Calderon is the latest Latin leader to call for a debate on drugs legalisation. And in the US, liberals and right-wing libertarians are pressing for an end to prohibition. Forty years after President Nixon launched the 'war on drugs' there is a growing momentum to abandon the fight" August 8, 2010, The Guardian


Mexican Journalists March in Protest of Cartel Attacks: "Hundreds of journalists marched in downtown Mexico City and thousands joined in other marches across the country Saturday in protest of the escalating intimidation, kidnapping and murder of fellow journalists by organized crime.... Journalism in Mexico has been a life-threatening profession for some years now. A total of 67 journalists have been killed here since 2000." August 7, 2010, CBS News