Mexico is on the front line of the war on drugs right now, it’s on the route between the suppliers and the worlds biggest consumer of prohibited drugs, the home of prohibition, the USA. Earlier in the week a message arrived at UKCIA from a reader pointing to a video of the ex-president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, addressing the CATO institute about the need for change in his country regarding drugs policy.
The CATO institute is a US based think-tank which describes itself as
The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank — dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.
Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th- century England that presented a vision of society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution — individual liberty, limited government, and free markets — turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to more information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.
As our reader said in his e-mail
It is 70 min. long but anybody interested in the legalisation issue, be it in favour or against, ought to listen to in full. Q&A start around the 37min. mark
This is a keynote speech and is certainly worth watching, please pass it around.
The CATO webpage is here
3 users commented in " Ex-president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, addressing the CATO institute "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThanks, Derek. As you rightly say, «Mexico is on the front line of the war on drugs right now», but we should not forget the millions of victims of this insane and irrational “war”. It is also worth remembering that other former Latin American presidents have been voicing the need to put an end to Prohibition and the War on Drugs on international forums and through a number of publications, in particular the ones published by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy
http://www.drogasedemocracia.org/English/
and by the Global Commission on Drug Policy
http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/Report
Finally, it is worth mentioning that even though the current president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, had in the past expressed reservations about drug legalisation, he has somewhat somehow changed his tune and is now showing a more favourable position regarding legalisation — admittedly, for political and strategic reasons, he uses “market alternatives”, but the implication is obvious.
This is what he said recently:
«Consumer countries are morally obliged to reduce their vast economic demand. If you can’t cut it, cut the economic profits. You have to find how to staunch this demand. Seek out all possible options, including market alternatives, so that drugs trafficking ceases to be a source of violence in Latin America …»
I do believe that now is a golden opportunity for drug consuming countries to unite around a common purpose and to pledge their support to producing countries to end Prohibition and the War on Drugs. It is time, indeed, that countries that have adopted harm reduction policies, or have decriminalised or depenalised the demand — the likes of Germany, Holland, Portugal, Spain, etc. — recognise that they have the MORAL OBLIGATION to support, promote and introduce changes in national and international laws seeking the decriminalisation or depenalisation of the supply, too. Not to do so is hypocritical, cynical and frankly speaking, criminal.
If foreign drug producers and domestic distributors are to be put out of business, domestic law enforcement must be concentrated on RETAIL SALES. But present legislation backing the “war on drugs” criminalizes mere possession. Worse, it purports to reverse the onus of proof in drug-possession trials. That reversal is incompatible with the rule of law and is therefore unconstitutional in ALL jurisdictions. More: http://is.gd/wod3rded.
Well done Mr Fox for seeing the light! (How long has it taken)?. However it is also true and worth mentioning that “these” same people only ever see the light when they are out off office, (New Agenda’s)?. We can get all the Ex Presidents we want stating the truth but until a Mr Obama and the like see it, it’s a pipe dream. In fact the current president is such a joker i wont be expecting it anytime soon, Bush lite, i like to call him. How can a African American man who knows if he had of been arrested when he was fooling around in his youth with cannabis, now do a 180?. He would not have been aloud to make it too position he is in now, stand by and watch thousands of others go to prison for the same thing he did?. Total and utter sell out. As Michael Moore and many others are admiting the current American President is a total disapointment. A Person who should and does know better. He has in fact allowed the DEA to continue Raiding. Even do he said he would’nt allow them too. Ah well im sure when he’s out off office he’l do A Ex President Fox. Tell the truth.