Yesterday, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report on the war on drugs, issuing a clear recommendation to world governments to open the debate around drug legalization and regulation — a strategy that would both reduce harm to users, and decrease the profit possibilities for drug cartels. In particular, the Commission recomended legalizing marijuana.
The White House was quick to disagree, sending out a statement that the war on drugs is working. "Drug use in America is half of what it was 30 years ago," said Rafael Lemaitre, communications director of the White House drug policy office. "Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe." According to the LA Times, in its 2012 budget, the White House requested an increase of 7.9% in national drug control budget.
The U.S. administration's position represents a reversal from what candidate Obama said in 2004, when he called the war on drugs "an utter failure", and supported decriminalization.
The Commission's recommendations were also dismissed by Mexico's Calderon government which has been allied with the United States in a four and a half year militaristic crackdown on drug cartels. The result of these efforts has been over 38,000 people dead, and growing public dismay. During the month of May alone, there were three massive peace demonstrations -- a three-day march to Mexico City, followed by a 90,000-person peace rally in Mexico City's zócalo (main square), and the organization of a multi-city caravan to deliver the "National Pact for Peace".
Advocacy for legalization also comes from without the Commission. In January 2011, former Mexican President Vicente Fox offered his support for legalization in an interview with Time Magazine in January 2011. "Every idea has its time," Fox said in the article. "There is a growing cost in not resolving this problem, in not finding a form of truce, a way to avoid the brutal violence that is hurting Mexico." Just last month, Fox reiterated his position when speaking to reporters in Chiapas.
Whether either government will heed the growing body of evidence in support of decriminalization remains to be seen.
"The U.S. needs to open a debate," Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, a member of the panel, told LA Times reporters. "When you have 40 years of a policy that is not bringing results, you have to ask if it's time to change it."
The Global Commission on Drug Policy is an international group of 19 world leaders including former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, past presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Schulz, and Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir. The purpose of the Commission, according to its web site, is "to bring to the international level an informed, science-based discussion about humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs to people and societies."
Read the entire report in English or Spanish online, here.
