Mexico's Calderon Continues Shift Toward Drug Legalization Support

Felipe Calderón with George Bush (whitehouse.gov)

Is it true that you would like to see America legalize drugs?

I can hit the criminals, I can put them in jails, I can take control of their structures, I can rebuild the social fabric. But if Americans don't reduce the demand or don't reduce at least the profits coming from the black market for drugs, it will be impossible to solve this problem.

So the answer is yes?

I want to see a serious analysis of the alternatives, and one alternative is to explore the different legal regimes about drugs. Even in the U.S., you can see states in which marijuana is ... if that is not legal, I don't understand what legal means. No? Marijuana has some kind of "medical" use, for instance, no?

At 42,000+ drug war killings in Mexico since Pres. Calderón took office, he'd better be talking about legalization. Sooner would have been better than later. But we'll take it.

Good to see Time bringing this up too -- kudos to intellectually intrepid reporter Belinda Luscombe. The major media is finally breaking its longstanding mostly silence about the drug war as prohibition, and not just marijuana prohibition.