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Whatever noisy hints Latin America has been making about a defiant march toward legalizing marijuana, the summit meeting of Western Hemisphere foreign ministers that ended Thursday revealed how rocky that path would be – and how many nations remained reluctant to join it.
The meeting, the annual General Assembly session of the Organization of American States, followed a report by the organization that called for "flexible approaches" in drug policy and included a headline-grabbing suggestion that the legalization of marijuana be seriously discussed.
Even before the report, Uruguay moved toward a state-regulated marijuana market. Guatemala has talked approvingly of the idea. And the president of Colombia has said marijuana should be legalized worldwide, though his country would not take the first step.
So how quickly will pot shops open throughout the region? Not very.
The frustration with current drug policy – with its high costs, death tolls in the tens of thousands across the Americas and persistent heavy flow of narcotics – is very real. Consensus on what to do about it, however, is much harder to come by. Diplomats here even tussled behind the scenes on how to follow up on the report and how further talks should be conducted.
The focus on the crack in the door for legalization has obscured the fact that several countries in the thick of the problem, and not just the United States, are cool to the idea or reject it outright as any solution to the violence or as a way to control consumption.
Brazil has opposed legalization of any drug, and its anti-drug chief was fired two years ago after comments perceived as a softened stance on drug users.
The head of Peru's anti-drug agency told reporters after the O.A.S. report came out that it rejected legalization and was already overwhelmed with trying to treat the growing number of drug consumers there.
Mexico, too, has rejected wholesale legalization, even though former President Vicente Fox expressed his support this week for marijuana legalization and said he would even become a marijuana farmer.
One of the more blunt anti-legalization voices here came from Nicaragua. Denis Moncada, ambassador to the organization, told the gathering, "Replacing and weakening the public policies and strategies now in use to combat the hemispheric drug problem would end up creating dangerous voids and jeopardize the security and well-being of our citizens."
Public opinion polls in the region, which trends conservative on social issues, generally show disapproval for the idea and, unlike the United States, few countries have an older generation that is comfortable with the drug and might advocate for it.
"In the United States, public opinion leads politicians and not the other way around," said John Walsh, a drug policy analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America who follows the region closely. "In Latin America, it is going to be a ways before that happens."
Still, he said, the drug report went further than expected by breaking a taboo of not even discussing legalization, though it rejected talk on liberalizing laws against more powerful drugs like cocaine. Over all, he said, the report could give countries leverage to challenge hardened American positions.
The United States, despite the states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes, has not budged on its position. Yet some Latin American leaders have said the move by those states undercuts the federal government's argument for seizing and criminalizing the drug.
Speaking here Wednesday on his first Latin America trip as chief diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry said he was open to dialogue but defended American policy. He called it comprehensive, balanced between reducing demand, which he said had decreased by 40 percent in recent years, and increasing treatment, yet not letting up on seizing drug loads and making arrests.
He suggested that those pushing legalization were seeking a panacea. "These challenges simply defy any simple, one-shot, Band-Aid" approach, Mr. Kerry told the assembly. "Drug abuse destroys lives, tears at communities of all of our countries."
The United States was among the countries that agreed to keep up the dialogue but behind the scenes scoffed at another foreign-minister-level discussion on drugs, which is now planned for April of next year to provide further guidance on new strategies. The given reasons were the cost of another such meeting while the O.A.S. budget was under scrutiny and worries that politics intruded on such high-level discussions.
But diplomats pushing for the meeting wondered if the United States was trying to squelch debate. "They talk about dialogue, so let's keep having it," said one involved in the discussions.
If widespread legalization is not on the horizon, what is?
Several countries, including big, drug-producing nations like Mexico and Peru, have already decriminalized possession or use of small amounts of illicit drugs. The United States has argued that it has effectively gone this route through the use of drug courts, which steer nonviolent drug offenders to treatment programs instead of prisons.
In the end, analysts said countries would probably do what they had always done, go their own route in accordance with what their public, and domestic politics, demand.
"No one thinks a new policy is going to be simple," said Daniel Wilkinson, managing director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, which this week urged the decriminalization of drugs for private use. "But that serious debate looking for alternatives has to really happen."
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: nytimes.com
Author: Randal C. Archibold
Contact: Contacts and Services - The New York Times
Website: In Americas, Resistance to Legal Marijuana
The meeting, the annual General Assembly session of the Organization of American States, followed a report by the organization that called for "flexible approaches" in drug policy and included a headline-grabbing suggestion that the legalization of marijuana be seriously discussed.
Even before the report, Uruguay moved toward a state-regulated marijuana market. Guatemala has talked approvingly of the idea. And the president of Colombia has said marijuana should be legalized worldwide, though his country would not take the first step.
So how quickly will pot shops open throughout the region? Not very.
The frustration with current drug policy – with its high costs, death tolls in the tens of thousands across the Americas and persistent heavy flow of narcotics – is very real. Consensus on what to do about it, however, is much harder to come by. Diplomats here even tussled behind the scenes on how to follow up on the report and how further talks should be conducted.
The focus on the crack in the door for legalization has obscured the fact that several countries in the thick of the problem, and not just the United States, are cool to the idea or reject it outright as any solution to the violence or as a way to control consumption.
Brazil has opposed legalization of any drug, and its anti-drug chief was fired two years ago after comments perceived as a softened stance on drug users.
The head of Peru's anti-drug agency told reporters after the O.A.S. report came out that it rejected legalization and was already overwhelmed with trying to treat the growing number of drug consumers there.
Mexico, too, has rejected wholesale legalization, even though former President Vicente Fox expressed his support this week for marijuana legalization and said he would even become a marijuana farmer.
One of the more blunt anti-legalization voices here came from Nicaragua. Denis Moncada, ambassador to the organization, told the gathering, "Replacing and weakening the public policies and strategies now in use to combat the hemispheric drug problem would end up creating dangerous voids and jeopardize the security and well-being of our citizens."
Public opinion polls in the region, which trends conservative on social issues, generally show disapproval for the idea and, unlike the United States, few countries have an older generation that is comfortable with the drug and might advocate for it.
"In the United States, public opinion leads politicians and not the other way around," said John Walsh, a drug policy analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America who follows the region closely. "In Latin America, it is going to be a ways before that happens."
Still, he said, the drug report went further than expected by breaking a taboo of not even discussing legalization, though it rejected talk on liberalizing laws against more powerful drugs like cocaine. Over all, he said, the report could give countries leverage to challenge hardened American positions.
The United States, despite the states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes, has not budged on its position. Yet some Latin American leaders have said the move by those states undercuts the federal government's argument for seizing and criminalizing the drug.
Speaking here Wednesday on his first Latin America trip as chief diplomat, Secretary of State John Kerry said he was open to dialogue but defended American policy. He called it comprehensive, balanced between reducing demand, which he said had decreased by 40 percent in recent years, and increasing treatment, yet not letting up on seizing drug loads and making arrests.
He suggested that those pushing legalization were seeking a panacea. "These challenges simply defy any simple, one-shot, Band-Aid" approach, Mr. Kerry told the assembly. "Drug abuse destroys lives, tears at communities of all of our countries."
The United States was among the countries that agreed to keep up the dialogue but behind the scenes scoffed at another foreign-minister-level discussion on drugs, which is now planned for April of next year to provide further guidance on new strategies. The given reasons were the cost of another such meeting while the O.A.S. budget was under scrutiny and worries that politics intruded on such high-level discussions.
But diplomats pushing for the meeting wondered if the United States was trying to squelch debate. "They talk about dialogue, so let's keep having it," said one involved in the discussions.
If widespread legalization is not on the horizon, what is?
Several countries, including big, drug-producing nations like Mexico and Peru, have already decriminalized possession or use of small amounts of illicit drugs. The United States has argued that it has effectively gone this route through the use of drug courts, which steer nonviolent drug offenders to treatment programs instead of prisons.
In the end, analysts said countries would probably do what they had always done, go their own route in accordance with what their public, and domestic politics, demand.
"No one thinks a new policy is going to be simple," said Daniel Wilkinson, managing director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, which this week urged the decriminalization of drugs for private use. "But that serious debate looking for alternatives has to really happen."
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: nytimes.com
Author: Randal C. Archibold
Contact: Contacts and Services - The New York Times
Website: In Americas, Resistance to Legal Marijuana
