(MintPress)-As the discussion around drug legalization heats up, the Obama administration is taking action to convince its regional allies that the war on drugs is still alive and working. However, despite recent visits to the region by US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Vice President Joe Biden, Latin American countries are not convinced that drug prohibition is still a desirable policy.
Last week, Vice President Joe Biden visited Mexico and Honduras to express US commitment to the security and development of Latin American countries and the importance of the war on drugs. Biden promised to push for increased aid to Latin American countries next year as a sign of unfaltering support for the security of its allies.
“Despite the significant recession we inherited and our difficult budget situation, we are sustaining support for the Central American Regional Security Initiative, through which we have dedicated $361 million since 2008” said Biden. The Obama administration is seeking another $107 million for the initiative next year.
Biden and Napolitano’s visits to Latin America came shortly after Guatemala’s newly elected President Otto Pérez Molina proposed the legalization of drugs in Guatemala and across Latin America as an alternative to the US-led war on drugs, which many Latin American leaders see as a failure.
In late February, US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told Latin American leaders that the war on drugs was not a failure. On the issue of drug legalization, Napolitano said, “The United States does not view decriminalization as a viable way to deal with the narcotics problem.”
Joe Biden told Latin American leaders last week that drug legalization is a topic worthy of legitimate discussion, saying, “the reason it warrants a discussion is, on examination you realize there are more problems with legalization than with nonlegalization.”
Last week, Biden told reporters that the United States “shared responsibility” for fighting narcotics trafficking and noted that while the US, the largest consumer of illicit drugs worldwide, works to reduce demand for illegal drugs, Central American countries must keep working to curb drug production.
Critics call Drug War a Failure
Many critics of the war on drugs believe that the endeavor is causing more harm than good and that the simple nature of supply and demand suggests little progress will be made to combat drug trafficking until US demand for illicit drugs falls.
Nearly 50,000 people have died from Mexico’s drug war alone since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on drug cartels in 2006.
Honduras, a key drug trafficking corridor, has the world’s highest murder rate, with 82.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010, according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.
Just last year, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report stating, “The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.
According to the report, “Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and years after President Nixon launched the US government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed.”
The 1st Latin American Conference on Drug Policy back in 2009 introduced the idea of drug decriminalization in response to decades of failed drug prohibition policies. The Latin American Herald Tribune reported that conference attendees “warned that the war on drugs ‘did not achieve its goal,’ since Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, which together produce all the cocaine in the world, ‘could not manage in 10 years to reduce the area under cultivation.’”
Guatemalan Vice President Baldetti spoke of the country’s plan to legalize drugs, saying, “This is Plan B. Plan A is what has failed. Plan A is what we have been doing until today, and unfortunately, we have not succeeded.”
Countries may switch from Decriminalization to Legalization
Several countries have already taken strides to decriminalize drug use including Argentina, Uruguay, and other countries across Latin America and Eurpoe – And legalization may not be far away.
Portugal implemented a new drug policy in 2000 when the government decriminalized all drug use, categorizing drug use as an administrative offense versus a criminal offense. Instead of facing jail time, which can stigmatize people and teach further criminal skills, drug users are targeted for specialized addiction treatment centers.
The Institute of Drug and Drug Dependence reported that the number of people arrested for criminal offenses related to drugs decreased from 14,000 to an average of 5,000-5,500 per year in Portugal after the decriminalization policy went into effect.
Costa Rica has had a drug decriminalization policy since 1990 mainly due to the lack of prison space available for drug offenders. “We have decriminalized drug use de facto because we can’t take everyone to prison who uses drugs,” said Zamora.
Public Security Minister Mario Zamora said that the drug policy in Costa Rica is also based on health concerns, not criminal concerns. However, Zamora also believes that legalizing drug use will not curb violence and rather efforts to stop drug-related issues should be focused on helping abusers get treatment.
Under decriminalization policies, it is still illegal to use drugs; however, the punishment for drug use is a mans other than prison. Guatemala’s new push towards drug legalization would actually make the sale and use of drugs legal under the law.
The Presidents of several countries including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, and Mexico are all open to further discussing the idea of drug legalization. The topic is expected to be discussed further at the Summit of the Americas conference in Colombia later this month.
While the US government continues to oppose any possibility of legalizing drug use, some states have begun decriminalizing the use of marijuana and voters in Washington and Colorado will decide whether to legalize marijuana in the polls this November.
Source: MintPress