Five conservative Latin American heads of state said in a joint declaration Monday that the votes by two US states to legalize marijuana would have important ramifications on regional efforts to suppress the drug trade. While the declaration did not say the leaders were considering relaxing their efforts against marijuana, it suggested that the votes in Colorado and Washington could make their enforcement of laws against marijuana more difficult.
Mexico and Central America have in recent years seen unprecedented levels of prohibition-related violence, with more than 60,000 killed in Mexico during Calderon's tenure and with rising levels of violence in Central America as Mexican enforcement efforts push the so-called cartels into the isthmus.
In addition to several paragraphs of boilerplate language reiterating their country's continuing commitment to fighting criminal drug trafficking organizations, the declaration also "underlines that it is necessary to deeply analyze the social, political, and public health implications for our nations of the processes in action at the state and local level of some countries of our continent to permit the production, consumption, and legal distribution of marijuana, which constitutes a paradigmatic change in respect to the current international regime on the part of such entities."
The declaration asks the secretary general of the Organization of American States, who was mandated at the Summit of the Americas in April with completing a hemispheric study of drugs, "to incorporate an analysis of the impact of the new policies referred to [above] on our countries." It also calls on the UN General Assembly to hold a special session on drug policy no later than 2015.
The Mexico City declaration comes just days after a key advisor to incoming Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto questioned how Mexico will enforce marijuana prohibition there when it is legal in some US states. The Obama administration has yet to formally respond to the decision by voters in Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana.
Last Tuesday's legalization votes are reverberating not just across the country, but across the hemisphere.
It sounds to me that these
It sounds to me that these Latin leaders, along with Mexico, are trying to be a force against legalization. If Latin America had any muscles to flex against the all powerful USA, it would be drug policy. Instead of creating a problem with nations involved in international treaties, the Obama administration is likely to go against CO and WA to keep the status quo.
Free the plant, free the people
It is time to free the most useful plant on the planet for all its uses. Food, clothing, shelter, energy, medicine, insight, re-creation. Once the nations come to their senses and overturn this conspiracy against the most useful plant on the planet and everyone is free to grow it in any amount the price will be on par with beans or corn and the criminal element will be eliminated.
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