Mexico President Felipe Calderon told the Conference of the Americas in Washington, D.C. on May 11 U.S. drug policy needed "coherence" to help him out in his violent war on drugs.
A speech like this might easily be dismissed as his way to deflect some of the reproof. Calderon's use of the military and the exploding number of casualties have brought wide public criticism in Mexico. The dismay with the policy is so widespread that his National Action Party, PAN by its Spanish name, is given a diminishing chance of retaining power after the 2012 presidential election.
The drug war price is upwards of 35,000 lives since this phase began in 2006. Ironically, it has been generally successful, but costly in lives and treasure. It has brought down many notorious capos, heads of crime organizations and cartels, and their lieutenants. The military has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and excessive force. Its deployment virtually assures increased skirmishes and violence.
Early in Calderon's administration, the United States and Canada gave 9,000 Mexican recruits professional police training. Police connections with organized crime may have topped off in 2009 when 516 officers were detained for that reason. The newspaper Reforma reported this week that the number has declined, possibly indicating the nexus between police crime-fighters and criminals has slowed, and organized crime's corrupting effect may be declining.
Calderon's approach is a daunting one to correct 100 years of minor governmental and judicial corruption. That may be one reason why his call for "coherence" is one to listen to. It is also a call for help, a sign of realism and a way to gain a foothold on drug production and distribution, rather than simply plan the next skirmish.
In Washington, Calderon pointed out the obvious: U.S. demand drives the market. Meanwhile, Mexico's crime fighting introduces greater risk to the gangs which are marketing drugs in the U.S. Hence the price of those commodities increases. That, in turn, encourages more and new distributors into the scene because high prices mean high profits.
Meanwhile, said Calderon, it is unfair for the Mexican government to detain poor farmers of small marijuana plots and have the plots eradicated, while 14 U.S. states allow its consumption and in some cases even its production.
While Calderon did not bring it up, during the previous administration of Vicente Fox, the Mexican congress passed drug legalization reform as a way to deter further development of the Mexican youth market for excess drug inventory meant for the U.S. But then President George W. Bush personally intervened to keep the bill from becoming law.
Calderon's shout out is preceded by two reports. In 2008, former president Ernesto Zedillo headed a Brookings Institution study group that recommended continent-wide legalization and treatment measures to take the criminal elements out of the market. Then in February of this year Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue issued a report saying the 40-year-old U.S. "war on drugs" needs "far-reaching debate" on alternative approaches.
But Calderon's in-sync posturing is also disingenuousness. On the one hand he says he is open to discussions about legalization. On the other, he criticizes the practice of medical marijuana.
Does he know better ways to cut demand and exit criminal elements? What these words really mean is that policymakers are at a loss about what to do, how to do it, or whether they want to do it. They should spend more time reading past reports instead of writing new ones. The consensus of a quarter century is telling.
We have an off-the-books illegal-drug market operating within the continent. These substances stupefy, addict and affect brain functions. It is a public-health issue.
As such, it's time to take the crime out of drugs and criminals out of distributing them. The hundreds of billions of illegal drug dollars circulating in the world's financial and commercial systems need to be applied to in legal activity.
What to do with those hundreds of billions? That's the discussion that needs to be taking place.
Jose de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail him at joseisla3@yahoo.com.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:15 pm on Wed, May 18, 2011.
"Take the crime out of drugs"......what a hoot.....this old .."hippie/flowerchild" ..rhetoric from the 1960's.
It was a false premise back then ...the same as it is now.
The same people that espouse ...CRIME FREE DRUGS...are the ones that espouse....OPEN BORDERS.
These ....Liberals...Progressives...Democrats...Socialists and out right..Communists.............want to turn.....America into another 3rd World ....NARCO-STATE.....just like ......MEXICO.....COLUMBIA....VENEZUELA.
DO YOU SEE ....REPUBLICANS.....TEA PARTY MEMBERS....CONSERVATIVES....wanting to open the American Border to.......DRUGS AND MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM MEXICO AND POINTS SOUTH............THE ANSWER, FOLKS..............IS..........N.O.
YOU ONLY SEE THE .......LIBERALS...THE PROGRESSIVES...the ....DEMOCRATS.......AND THE OTHERS.
sockratties posted at 6:44 am on Thu, May 19, 2011.
Jose de la Isla’s commentary is an excellent article whether we agree with his conclusions or not. The bottom line is that the illegal drug industry generates billions of dollars that are in turn spent (tax free) to create even more crime. These billions are dollars that corrupt governments, destroy entire countries, KEEP OUR BORDERS OPEN, and finance huge crime industries such as prostitution, child pornography, slave trades, ransom and money laundering.
Jose’s article clearly shows that the problem is as much political as it is about crime fighting and prevention. The bottom line is that you must remove the demand to get rid of the supply. Intervention simply doesn’t work and hasn’t ever worked. History shows us that it took the Boxer Revolution in China to defeat the English supported opium trade. There is just too much money involved. The criminals are too sophisticated and their tax free billions provide them with firepower and technology equal and sometimes better than law enforcement. They also aren’t restrained by the rule of law.
As Mr. de la Isla says, this discussion needs to take place.
leon – if you even read below the title line of the article before you posted your predictable rant, what would you really suggest? Do you have any ideas or suggestions, or are you all rant, rant, rant? Join the adults and put something of value on the table.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:19 am on Thu, May 19, 2011.
"History shows that it took the Boxer Revolution (actually called a 'Rebellion'..but let's not ...split hairs....[wink]) in China to defeat the English supported opium trade" = NOT.
The Chinese "Boxers" got their "you-know-what's" kicked from here to Hong Kong by the Allied (Russian, German, British, American, etc) Forces. The Empress of China had to flee the Imperial City in Beijing for more than a year.
The Government of Imperial China had to pay "RESTITUTION" in the amount of more than "$61 BILLION (with a 'B') DOLLARS BACK TO THE ALLIES UP UNTIL THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR II.
LET'S FACE IT FOLKS............THIS ARTICLE IS NOTHING BUT....ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA FROM THE .............LIBERAL/LEFT-WING/SOCIALIST/DEMOCRATS.........WHO LOVE TO ...."RUN DOWN"....AMERICA...EVERY CHANCE THEY GET.
WE NEED A ..............TEA PARTY............AMERICAN PRESIDENT...TO CALL UP THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO AND TELL HIM THAT THE AMERICAN-MEXICAN BORDER WILL BE CLOSED ON SUCH AND SUCH A DATE UNTIL YOU CLEAN UP YOUR .........NARCO-STATE COUNTRY.........AND PUT AN END TO THE....MEXICAN ILLEGAL ALIEN INVASION.
sockratties posted at 12:23 pm on Thu, May 19, 2011.
leon – You’re right. I confused the Boxer “Rebellion” with the Opium Wars which occurred between 1839 and 1860 because British and United States merchants brought opium from Bengal to the coast of China, where they sold it to Chinese smugglers who distributed the drug in defiance of Chinese laws.
The point is that the problem China had with drugs related to both the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion illustrates just how deeply the drug financed crime cartels can cut.
You still haven’t contributed anything of value. It’s silly to think a phone call can solve the problem. Refusing to acknowledge that this is every American’s problem so you can blame the other guy contributes to the problem. Recognizing that there is a problem and suggesting that it be addressed is not anti-American. Not addressing the problem, or trying to blame it on other Americans… now you figure it out.
Accuracy posted at 3:44 pm on Thu, May 19, 2011.
Let's add addiction to war on all drugs (illegal drugs and prescription drugs).
As the war on illegal drugs (LSD, heroin, and methamphetamine) gets tougher, let's add the “prescription-drug use addiction” to war on drugs which is rising nationally among the general population.
Drugs are Drugs . . All drugs can cause serious and potentially life-threatening side effects. Prescription drugs are just so bad, you should avoid them at all costs. If your physician won't prescribe a safer alternative -- or let you use a natural remedy -- then go to a doctor who will.
Dale Whiting posted at 10:23 pm on Thu, May 19, 2011.
Somebody explain this to me. Whether you are a supply side economist or a demand side economist looking for practical solutions to this problem, when blaiming Mexico for its supplying the US with drugs and then turning right arround and supplying Mexican drug cartels with weapons, aren't we up north of the border being hipocratical? Aren't we the ones to be blaimed? Absent demand, there would be no supply. Absent the selling of arms illegally, and absent the demand for arms from cartels, there wouild be no border problems related to violence.
Where some just about our building a moat filled with allegators, today we hear that ultra light aircraft are dropping 200 lbs bags of pot using GPS locators. Suppliers will be innovative when demand is high and lucerative! Legalization is the only solution from either the supply or demand side of this economic problem. We fool ourselves when we think Law Enforcement and Prisons offer some solution!
k33j88 posted at 5:39 am on Fri, May 20, 2011.
"Liberalism is a mental disorder"----Thank You Dr. Savage.