Does Mexico's President Want to Legalize Marijuana?

Jacob Bell

New Member
Flanked between Mexican and U.S. flags, President Felipe Calderon was unleashing his familiar tirade against drug gangs in a speech in New York on Monday. The cartels are carrying out mass murder, he said. They are a regional threat. And then he dropped his bombshell. If the United States can't cut demand for drugs, Calderon said, it must look for alternative solutions.

"We are living in the same building. And our neighbor is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. And everybody wants to sell him drugs through our doors and our windows," the Mexican president said. "If the consumption of drugs cannot be limited, then decision-makers must seek more solutions – including market alternatives – in order to reduce the astronomical earnings of criminal organizations."

The comment unleashed shockwaves on both sides of the Rio Grande. Here was a man who has waged the biggest campaign against drug gangs in Mexico's history – and who U.S. President Barack Obama even called Mexico's Elliot Ness – saying that the U.S. should consider legalizing drugs.

Or is Calderon really saying that?

The speech was actually the second time in less a month that the Mexican president had used his phrase "market alternatives."

The first came in a televised speech in Mexico on Aug. 26, the day after gangsters burned down a casino in Monterrey, killing 52 apparently innocent customers and croupiers.

"If [Americans] are determined and resigned to consume drugs, then they should seek market alternatives in order to cancel the criminals' stratospheric profits," he said then.

Following that, pundits speculated that the anguish of the casino deaths may have made Calderon use a clumsy turn of phrase. But the second time was a clear confirmation that he was deliberately putting forward a new idea.

Press officers at Mexico's presidential palace said they could not comment on the meaning of Calderon's words. But pundits are all convinced that "market alternatives" is Calderon-speak for the dreaded "L-word" – legalization.

"Everyone understands what Calderon is now saying. But he is using the softer phrasing to cause a little less controversy," said Jorge Chabat, one of Mexico's most prominent political commentators.

The question remains as to why at this stage in his presidency, Calderon has shifted on such a central policy.

After Calderon was sworn into office in December 2006, the war on drugs quickly became the centerpiece of his administration. He sent soldiers and federal police to burn down crops, seize labs and extradite kingpins to the United States.

While praising the soldiers as heroes, Calderon railed against the "evil" of drugs and said the legalization could lead to many young people suffering.

But after more than 40,000 drug related murders since then, Calderon has apparently grown weary of a war with no end.

"Mexican presidents learn from the reality of power that the war on drugs doesn't work," Chabat, the analyst, said. "He hasn't seen clear results, and this seems to have made him genuinely change his opinion."

The last two Mexican presidents, Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox, also converted to the cause of drug-policy reform on leaving office.

"We have to take all the production chain out of the hands of criminals and into the hands of producers," Fox told GlobalPost in a recent interview. "So there are farmers that produce marijuana and manufacturers that process it and distributors that distribute it and shops that sell it."

Calderon has just come to the same conclusion a little earlier, Chabat said.

It remains to be seen what effect Calderon's new rhetoric could have on Washington's policy.

Drug-policy reformists in the United States have already heralded Calderon's statements, saying they will help their cause.

"It is incredibly useful," said Tom Angell, spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "If President Obama sees his major foreign partner in the war on drugs say that maybe we ought to stop it, then Obama may be forced to address this in a meaningful way."

Mexican cartels are believed to make $30 billion every year selling drugs to American consumers.

Activists argue a first step would be the legalization of marijuana, which would take a huge cash crop away from Mexican cartels.

A referendum to legalize marijuana will be held in Colorado in 2012, with activists also looking at possible referendums in California and Washington states.

However, Obama has shown little sign of being receptive to these activists. His drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, has taken a hardline against any such reform, while federal agents have busted medical marijuana farms in places such as California, where medical cannabis is legal under state law.

Calderon himself will step down from power in December 2012 and is not allowed by law to stand for re-election.

But once the door has been opened to a Mexican president questioning the war on drugs, others could follow.

"We've seen a wave of former presidents in Latin America opposing the war on drugs. Now this could be a time of standing presidents becoming emboldened and opposing it," Angell said. "And this could mean a sea change in policy."

abb10.jpg


News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com
Author: Ioan Grillo
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Cable News Network
Website: Does Mexico's president want to legalize marijuana?
 
And Columbia, Venezuela, Panama, Jamaica.
I sat next to the police commander of Turks and Caicos on a flight to St.Maarten in February and of course had to bring up ganja to him. :)
He said" The ONLY reason it's illegal in the caribbean is because the U S says so"
They can't self govern because of pressure from our government.
h
How f-d is that?
He said it's the same on all those islands.

What a shame :-(
 
They want to legalize and we dont, now i know why. They just want it more easy to export it . The money would still go to gangsters just 'legal gangsters'!!! Them people think they are slick, but really they are stupid and they think we are stupid, but the u.s.a. is not !
 
Hasn't Mexico already legalized possession of small amounts of cannabis and other drugs?

To me, the only surprise is that he was apparently happy when the legalization effort failed in California last year. I remember wondering at the time if he was receiving monies from the cartels in his country.
 
They want to legalize and we dont, now i know why. They just want it more easy to export it . The money would still go to gangsters just 'legal gangsters'!!! Them people think they are slick, but really they are stupid and they think we are stupid, but the u.s.a. is not !

If its legalized and controled on within our country, it will be our farmers and processors that will make the profits and our people that will be paid the wages.
 
I know that because it is so cheap to grow, makes the land where it grows better organicly, has so many benifits for the grower and the land that all our farmers would have to be stupid not to grow it if just for the rotational crop value to replenish the soil and when you add the product value to that, they would have to be brain dead to not realize the benifits of hemp, cannabis production for themselves.
 
The only thing i can say is ' write your Congressmen and give to normal ' i do becouse its the only thing i can do right now to help the Movement.:peace:
 
Truth is they can't legalize weed until they find a new revenue source.Our economy has become dependent on the drug trade think about what would happen to law enforcement from the government down to the state level. Colleges would not get moneys for classes in drug related subjects .How about pharma when real competition started.Our underground economy would suffer there's a lot of people they like to pretend don't exist the drug trade is the only way they can feed their family's since they gave our jobs to the world and left us with the bill.Our government has learned to fight these battles on other countries soil. Eventually us paying their bills won't be enough.
 
The only people that changing the status of hemp and cannabis would hurt financialy would be people that are pretty well off at this time. I see no harm in changing prison guards into working class people again. I see no harn in reducing the "graft" sought by the phoney marijuana addiction therapists. I see no harm at removing the "easy money" part of law enforcmment the "drug war" affords them. They should be spending their time and efforts making us, our homes, and property safe from violent people and property thieves instead of setting in an air conditioned courthouse somewhere drawing overtime for someone smoking a little cannabis. The only people that wil be hurt by cannabis and hemp reform are the ones contributing to the hurt forced on users of cannabis and they mostly deserve to lose their position in life because it is at least partialy built on the greed, lies, deception and pain of the "drug war".
 
We believe all these things we say are true and they believe they are right.Problem is they feel they feel they have the right to make decision for us.Our vote has no value since they decide what's best.
 
I agree 100%. VOTE VOTE VOTE!! What they "should" be doing and what they are doing are two very different things. A man once said to me " you should never should on yourself ". I just looked at him and smiled .
 
Leadership, like real willingness to go in a new direction to achieve a goal of common good.

When asked which president in the world today would offer it, I really thought it would be Obama before Calderon.

Our leaders are lemmings, we are headed for the cliff.
 
Back
Top Bottom