Obama: Reduce Drug Trafficking To "Localized Criminal Problem"

President Barack Obama, at a joint press conference with his Mexican counterpart Thursday, said that the goal of the joint U.S.-Mexican war against drug cartels is to return drug trafficking to a "localized criminal problem."

In a break with past presidents, Obama acknowledged that U.S. demand for drugs was fueling the violence. "I will not pretend that this is Mexico's responsibility alone. Demand for these drugs in the United States is what is helping to keep these cartels in business," said Obama.

Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said last weekend that the U.S. should seriously debate legalizing marijuana in order to curb violence and reduce the power of the cartels. Instead, Obama pledged a tougher, coordinated onslaught against the cartels.

In doing so, he downplayed the prospect of an outright victory.

"Are we going to eliminate all drug flows? Are we going to eliminate all guns coming over the border? That's not a realistic objective," said Obama. "What is a realistic objective is to reduce it so significantly, so drastically that it becomes once again a localized criminal problem, as opposed to a major structural problem that threatens stability in communities along those borders and that increases corruption and threatens the rule of law."

Obama pledged to slow the flow of assault weapons southward across the border. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called on Obama to reinstate the ban on assault weapons, saying that its lapse has led to a major increase in the availability of assault weapons in Mexico. Obama acknowledged that more than 90 percent of the guns recovered in Mexico originated in the United States.

Obama also pledged to work toward "dismantling of financial structures" built up by the cartels, flush with profits from moving marijuana, cocaine and heroin into the U.S. market.

In order to go after cartel money, Obama said, he designated three cartels as "significant foreign narcotics drug traffickers under U.S. law, clearing the way for our Treasury Department, together with Mexico, to freeze their assets and subject them to sanctions."

Ryan Grim is the author of the forthcoming book This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America. Get HuffPost Politics on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Comments

[Peji]

02:59 AM on 04/21/2009

Mr. Obama says: "I will not pretend that this is Mexico's responsibility alone. Demand for these drugs in the United States is what is helping to keep these cartels in business," said Obama.

No, Mr. President, criminalization of drugs is what is keeping these cartels in business. Let Americans grow pot...put Mexican cartels out of business and you can pay down the deficit by taxing it.

[FreedomAgain]

05:55 PM on 04/20/2009

Crime is a direct result of supply and demand. If you make it legal, supply goes up, people can grow it, and crime goes away. Too bad politicians are blind to simple solutions.

[Kaves]

01:20 PM on 04/17/2009

How stupid is reality going to get before we change it?

[Bcasey11]

11:11 AM on 04/17/2009

"I will not pretend that this is Mexico's responsibility alone. Demand for these drugs in the United States is what is helping to keep these cartels in business," said Obama.

And the demand will never end, lets be mature about the issue.

Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said last weekend that the U.S. should seriously debate legalizing marijuana in order to curb violence and reduce the power of the cartels. Instead, Obama pledged a tougher, coordinated onslaught against the cartels.
drug war= police state inc.

[Bankenstein]

10:57 AM on 04/17/2009

A "localized criminal problem"? Well, I'd much rather decriminalize but I do support the idea of buying American (wink wink)!!!

[PresidentRobertBooth]

09:46 AM on 04/17/2009

LOL

Obama's solution is to reduce a criminal act to a slightly less severe criminal act?

He isn't liberal ENOUGH to know how to solve these problems.

Or rather, he IS, but simply doesn't have the political courage to do it.

The only way is to legalise, tax, and regulate all drugs.

[AdamX]

09:14 AM on 04/17/2009

How to get rid of ALL cartels over night:

Legalize drugs. Educate the masses.

It will also reduce usage!

No more pushers, or drug-related crimes.

[MartinRead]

09:01 AM on 04/17/2009

Can't claim any particular expertise or knowledge of drug policy but have always found the arguments for legalisation compelling. The problems stemming from alcohol prohibition in the US seem so obvious; excess funds in the wrong hands, development of gang culture, use of weapons and increased corruption etc. However, as per normal the devil is in the detail. In the UK at the moment there is something of a panic over 'skunk', a high THC type of cannabis, and suspected nasty mental side-effects. There is a particular worry over the impact on juvenile brains.
Of course there is the usual counter argument that the costs of alcohol abuse is immense. On balance, if you legalise you can control quality and tax, creating some legitimate jobs in the process, and use some of the extra revenue to furnish essential educational and health infrastructure. It's a long hop from marijuana to the harder drugs although it is one we will have to contemplate. Many of us have addictive personalities and like taking risks. Did I hear somebody mutter 'bankers'?

[clearthinker2008]

09:00 AM on 04/17/2009

This isn't going to work.

[clearthinker2008]

08:53 AM on 04/17/2009

Why, I sit here wondering is that every freaking ill in this world is the fault of the United States?

[BBackSoon]

10:22 AM on 04/17/2009

Because we are a selfish society and we want it, and we want it now!

[fredamae]

12:34 PM on 04/17/2009

70 Plus years of Cannabis Prohibition, 40 years of the CSA and 29 years of "Just Say No" is an Abysmal Failure. We have allowed for the creation of Addicts and Felon's alike through Stupidity and Draconian Drug Policy Laws.
MILLIONS of Lives in Ruination, People Have Died Because of the Laws...

How do you feel its an "I Want It Now" situation?

[fredamae]

08:37 AM on 04/17/2009

Fact: Obama has the higest IQ of any President to hold office.
Fact: The War on Drugs Is the Most dangerous Element surrounding the Use and Consumption of Cannabis.
Fact: The US can Benefit from NEW Tax revenue to the tune of about $41,000,000,000.00
ANNUALLY if Cannabis were Taxed.
Fact: More than 20Million People have been arrested for simple Possession over the years.
Fact: It Costs American Tax Payers an ADDITIONAL $1,000,000,000.00 ANNUALLY To Keep CannabisConsumers Behind Bars.
Fact: Obama has The Highest IQ of Any President to hold office.
Fact: The Sick and Dying are being Prosecuted for their Choice of Medicine.
Fact: Apathetic Approaches to Health Care and Medical treatment for the Comfort and Well Being Is STILL taking A Back Seat in the Obama Administration IF Cannabis is in the Discussion. WHY?

So Many PROBLEMS Can be Resolved/Dissolved by the Simple Stroke Of A Pen Regarding Cannabis!

WHY is this NOT Done?

DE-Schedule Cannabis! Research It's Undeniable Medical Benefits and STOP PUTTING PEOPLE IN PRISON FOR ITS USE!
FACT: Obama Has the Highest IQ of Any Sitting President, Why Is He Refusing to Act upon That Which He Knows To Be Fact! Cannabis Is the Least Toxic Substance Known To Man. The Most Dangerous Element Surrounding the Use Of Cannabis Are The Laws, Rules and Policies Surrounding its Use!

[Malkin71]

08:45 AM on 04/17/2009

Answer- Obama puts politics above everything else.

I hate to say it, but now that I see it...it's so clear and so sad.

[fredamae]

10:12 AM on 04/17/2009

then i guess he may just be a "one termer".

[BBackSoon]

10:27 AM on 04/17/2009

‘Obama puts politics above everything else.’

That is wrong, Now if you would say ‘Obama calculates the political price of every decision’ then I would agree. But in reality that is what politicians do. And that might change a little when he is in his second term. But he will still be calculating enough to help other Dems.

This is not to say he does not want to help nor do the right thing it is just some thing have a high political cost. And just like our lives, you have to pick your battles.

[edwcorey]

09:12 AM on 04/17/2009

"WHY is this NOT Done?"

Because there's an array of special interests against it: Pharma, corrections officers, corporate prisons, the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug Enforcement Agency, cotton growers, chemical companies, forest-cutting companies--all of whom would lose revenue and jobs. Then you have crooks on both sides of the law who benefit from bribes and revenue. It's like the private aircraft manufacturers who are now screaming about loss of business because the media and Congress lambasted the auto moguls for eschewing their own companies' products and traveling to hearings in private jets. The aircraft people don't care that their products dump tons of crap in the air and cost investors in the CEOs' companies. They care only for their little piece of pie, the benefits to the rest of the country be damned. As far as cannabis goes, a lot of groups have fingers in the pie.

[onenvrnos]

08:23 AM on 04/17/2009

We recently returned from a 2-week vacation across U.S. Upon traveling through New Mexico, 50 miles within the state, we were stopped at a checkpoint. Border patrol agents, speaking Mexican, told us to get out of our car while a dog and handler searched our vehicle as we watched in disbelief. This was not AT THE BORDER. This was within the United States. There was a small amount of pot inside our vehicle which is now gone. My husband does not smoke and never has. For once in my life, I was scared to death and thought about the endangerment I had brought upon him and the fear in his eyes as we were searched. We are in our 60's.

To criminalize United States citizens by harrassing them and making them feel guilty even when they have done nothing to warrant such harrassment is beyond me. I will never subject my husband to such fear again, but when will this stop? Are our homes going to be next? Are our rights being taken away forever? We have always paid our taxes, worked our entire life, have no criminal records, and try to do the right thing by other people. Now, I no longer feel safe even within my own country. How humiliating to have MEXICAN authorities search American citizens. Sarukhan is right. Go after hard drugs but make pot legal. It is the proper thing to do.

[clearthinker2008]

08:56 AM on 04/17/2009

"speaking Mexican"

Mexican is NOT a language, it's a person who is born in Mexico, or have Mexico heritage. He (and I'm guessing here) was speaking the language Spanish. I couldn't read beyond that because you have lost all credibility with me after writing that.

[onenvrnos]

09:03 AM on 04/17/2009

My husband is Hispanic and speaks Spanish fluently. "Mexican" Spanish dialect is completely different. Live here, and you will understand before you put people down.

[fredamae]

10:14 AM on 04/17/2009

....furthermore, you were never "there" With it to begin with If that is your Only "non-valid" complaint.

[edwcorey]

09:22 AM on 04/17/2009

Going after "hard" drugs is more of the same crap. Why criminalize poppies and coca? They're just plants. They are straw men, established to create fear and loathing and jobs for people who know they're just going through the motions. Imagine, for example, what would happen if cocoa were illegal, or aspirin. And it's not like drug-crazed zombies were wandering the world before criminalization. The biggest drug cartel on earth was the British Empire, which brought opium to China, to balance the trade between the Qing Dynasty and Great Britain. The British were importing high-value tea, but the Chinese didn't want anything the British had, except silver, so the money went only one way. China could always grow more tea, but the British couldn't keep losing silver. By addicting as many Chinese as possible, the British tried to get their money back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War

[Malkin71]

08:19 AM on 04/17/2009

Can anyone actually explain why marijuana should be illegal but alcohol should not?

Don't give me that "we already have enough mind altering substances" out there is not a sufficient answer....

Unless you think it's ok to allow people to drink Coke, but you would throw anyone who drank Pepsi in jail...cuz that is what you are doing now....

[clearthinker2008]

08:57 AM on 04/17/2009

No, but you really didn't want an answer to that you just wanted us to go "yeah, it should be legal".

You are right, it should be.

[Malkin71]

09:07 AM on 04/17/2009

No, I REALLY REALLY REALLY want an answer...

[mredder4]

07:55 AM on 04/17/2009

LOL, frozen assets and sanctions, oh my!

[ObjectiveRealist]

07:01 AM on 04/17/2009

Did the Secret Service give him a lobotomy on January 22? He used to understand that prohibition is the cause of the problem. Every drug enforcement action increases the street price of a drug, and the economic demand is static, meaning constant even in the face of price increases. That is economic fact. It is not possible to reduce drug trafficking with more enforcement of drug prohibition laws, but it is possible to reduce drug trafficking with less enforcement or non-enforcement of drug trafficking laws. But our new President has made clear that he will not lead, at least not in the right direction, on this issue. I guess it's up to the grass roots. Heh.