The phrase that I caught here on Saturday in Calderon’s speech, is finally getting noticed in the mainstream media.
Tim Padgett at Time Magazine: Mexico’s Narco-Epiphany: Is Calderón Suggesting the U.S. Legalize Drugs?
- DrugWarRant.com, the longest running single-issue blog devoted to drug policy
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Well, eventually, someone was gonna notice. Kinda like having toilet paper stuck to your shoe, only it’s the truth there flapping from your heel.
Reply of the month.
I hate that I don’t kknow how to save and add links but…
I read some idiot spinning it as Calderon calling for the US to crack down even harder on users here. But whatever, the current thinking is that Plan Merida will continue no matter who replaces Calderon.
No, he said, “market alternatives,” meaning we should either get it from somewhere else, or legalize in some way.
Clearly, Mexico has had enough and is looking for some sort of solution. IF they don’t get cooperation from America, then they may well come up with a solution (like a drug gang truce) that calms things down in their territory, but pushes problems northward as much as possible. They’ll stop cooperating.
I can’t imagine any other issue that would be more important to Mexico than the drug war in next year’s elections, and I doubt there are many Mexicans who think this war is a good thing. This, combined with the wretched world wide economic situation is going to push them to make big changes.
Problem is, on the U.S. side our political elite have already decided our choices will be between Obama the Betrayer and Rick Perry the Executioner. Obama has no courage to do the right thing, and Perry thinks the drug war is being run by a bunch of pansies who coddle drug users and dealers with light sentences and that 4th amendment thing.
Well, who gives a damn about the political elite? We can thwart their plan by every person who wants reform crossing party lines, if necessary, to vote in the primaries/caucuses for Ron Paul, so he has more delegates to the national GOP convention than any other GOP candidate. That’s how you get someone nominated and from there, elected. Against Obama Ron Paul would win hands down unless there is some kind of fix on the final vote.
when you consider that the drug cartels employ more people,,feed more families than any of our industries we so graciously moved there for cheap labor,,,,you can bet their people are just as tired this insanity and more so than US!!!
For what it’s worth, here is a version of the original and my free translation:
Si están decididos y resignados a consumir drogas, busquen, entonces, alternativas de mercado que cancelen las estratosféricas ganancias de los criminales, o establezcan puntos de acceso claros, distintos a la frontera con México. Pero esa situación ya no puede seguir igual.
If they have resigned themselves to the decision to consume drugs, let them then seek market alternatives that eliminate criminals’ stratospheric profits, or establish designated entry points away from the Mexican border. But this situation cannot continue as is.
Mexico’s drug war gets more complicated every day. The Merida Initiative will likely add flash powder to the fire and create a scorched earth. Opportunism will triumph. Human ingenuity will prevail. People will still get high on drugs.
None of this chaos would have been possible without prohibition. Forty years ago, who would have thought that a sadopolitical focus on criminalizing weed would create a massive civil war along the Mexican-American border? Now, for far too many North Americans, it’s like ‘yeah, so what?’
The drug war in Mexico is fast approaching the body count of U.S. military casualties in Viet Nam (58,272 KIA) in roughly half the time. This current permutation of the drug war will be big, and naturally, it will be completely botched by the respective governments involved.
In that sense, I can understand why President Calderón is hedging his bets by issuing a veiled call for legalization and regulation. Smart politicians everywhere will do the same if they want to preserve their political careers.