Thousands came out yesterday across Mexico to protest the drug war. The protests were led by journalist and poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was killed last week in drug prohibition-related violence.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since President Calderon launched his "surge" against cartels in December 2006.
The bloody, unwinnable war is leading more and more elected officials to speak out against drug prohibition. In 2009, the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Drug Policy - co-chaired by three former presidents (Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico) - issued a groundbreaking report declaring the drug war a failure. The report further advocated the decriminalization of marijuana and the need to "break the taboo" on open and honest discussion about international drug prohibition. Since then, former Mexican President Vicente Fox has also said that legalizing drugs would reduce the daily massacres in Mexico.
While elected officials and the "grasstops" are incredibly important voices against the drug war, it is obvious that we need the "grassroots" - we need people to hit the streets against the unwinnable drug war. That's why yesterday's protests in Mexico are inspiring.
The war on drugs is also America's war at home. Every day, there's violence in our streets due to drug prohibition. We also arrest 1.7 million people every year for drug law violations, 750,000 for marijuana possession alone. Our state budgets are collapsing because we spend billions of dollars every year locking up people behind bars who don't belong there.
The heartbreaking carnage in Mexico and in our streets is not due to drugs or drug use, but drug prohibition. There is nothing inherently evil or violent about marijuana and coca, but prohibiting these highly-sought-after plants inevitably leads to violence, as people are willing to kill each other over the enormous profits. Now that alcohol is legal, no one is murdered over a case of Budweiser.
This June will mark the 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon launching the war on drugs. The Drug Policy Alliance will be teaming up with organizations across the country to protest this disgraceful anniversary in cities and towns across the country.
Let's take inspiration from our brothers and sisters in Mexico, hit the streets, and demand an exit strategy from this unwinnable war.
Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance.
Follow Tony Newman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TonyNewmanDPA
The massive administration that is the DEA, the ATF who often deal with drug merchants who use weapons, the FBI who take an overall view and supply information to both agencies, and the State equivalents of the above. On the private side, we have the burgeoning prison industrial complex. At last count Justice Department number-crunchers found that people sentenced for drug crimes accounted for 21% of state prisoners and 55% of all federal prisoners.
Cut out those imprisoned and/or on parole and you'd be severely cutting the profits of the private entities who make big buck from government contracts; they'd have to lay off thousands, if not cease to operate.
The whole court and justice system employs countless numbers of judges, lawyers and administrators who would be scrambling for work if not for drug cases.
That's not even mentioning the CIA and their notoriety when it comes to drugs (Iran-Contra).
The right thing to do, in this case is the hardest thing to do. This behemoth, with all it's vested interests and public relations firms who can whip up a Willie Horton style frenzy at an instant to scare the electorate, are not going anywhere, soon. Woe to any politician who is brave enough to try to make a dent..
Mexicans fleeing narco violence line up by the tens of thousands at US ports of entry across the entire border. Those undocumented already within the US (11 million?) line up at interior immigration offices and ask for asylum too. Narco violence has made their safe return to parts of Mexico almost impossible.
Every one of them chooses to apply because of their fear of being killed due to drug related violence in Mexico. Then keep the applicants coming until the two governments have to act.
Over time this protest would cost the US government millions or even billions of dollars. That would make Washington put pressure on Mexico to get its act together.
This protest would draw worldwide attention and put the two “profit above human life” governments in the embarrassing position of having to do the right thing.
http://twopesos-protestfortheundocumented.blogspot.com/2011/04/imagine-two-countries-saying-estamos.html
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/4372/and-what-history-looks-mexico
And This Is What History Looks Like in Mexico
Posted by Al Giordano - April 7, 2011 at 11:38 am
http://chillychilango.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/javier-sicilias-letter-to-politicians-criminals-english/
Javier Sicilia’s Open Letter to Mexico’s Politicians and Criminals
Drug prohibition laws do nothing to reduce supply or demand --only a small percent of the drugs are ever interdicted, and busted dealers are replaced within a few days. There will always be more dealers and drugs because there is a global demand for illegal drugs of hundreds of billions of dollars every year. That amount of money buys a lot of foot-soldiers and guns and corruption. In the USA it only ruins lives and neighborhoods; in a poor country with fewer legitimate paths to success, drug money builds cartels that challenge government sovereignty and create mass graves.
The only ones benefitting from drug prohibition are the drug cartels and defense attorneys. The consequences are disastrous to public health and safety: unregulated drugs in an unregulated market controlled by international drug cartels. That's the inevitable result of prohibition, its time to WAKE UP AMERICA.
Replacing prohibition with a legally regulated market for non-medical drugs would solve many problems, including the violence we read about here. Educated (licensed) adults peacefully buying regulated product at regulated dispensaries where counseling and treatment referrals are always available.
But yes, personal possession of ALL drugs needs to be decriminalized and control over the supply line should eventually end up in the hands of health-practitioners.
I just imagine that once cannabis is legal, for the reason I explained about about black market vs legal market interaction, the number of new hard drug users will drop off substantially and eventually we won't have such a huge problem with meth or coke or heroin etc
So I stand by my conviction that the number 1 goal on the list of any drug war reformer should be ending cannabis prohibition, wait 5-10 years while making incremental changes in personal possession laws for all other drugs, and then before you know it people will wake up with heroin clinics at the back of the CVS instead of a back alley.
And just like with alcohol, we need marijuana to be legally sold to adults in supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies in order to undercut local drug dealer prices and drive them out of our communities and away from our children. We need the people of Georgia to demand that adult marijuana sales be legalized everywhere that alcohol and tobacco are sold.
The prohibition costs taxpayers $40 billion a year, causes 700,000 arrests every year, diverts $10 billion a year to the Mexican drug cartels and lures drug dealers into our neighborhoods to sell their stinking weed to our children. The prohibition's not working and we've got to END IT!!