Mexican president to California: Keep the War on Drugs going!

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Mexico's president opposes marijuana legalization

California's Prop. 19 would decriminalize small amounts of pot for personal use, but Mexico's President Felipe Calderon claims that this would undercut Mexico's fight against drug cartels. Because, you know, that's been going so well lately.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon strongly opposes the California ballot measure that would legalize small amounts of marijuana, saying it reflects softening attitudes toward drug consumption in the U.S. that are undercutting efforts to control organized crime groups in Mexico.

...

Calderon, in an interview in Tijuana, said he was disappointed that the U.S. federal government, which for years has pushed Mexico to crack down on drug traffickers, has not done more to oppose the measure. "I think they have very little moral authority to condemn Mexican farmers who out of hunger are planting marijuana to feed the insatiable [U.S.] appetite for drugs," he said Thursday.

I think I tend to side with Calderon's predecessor on this one:

Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, has made headlines by calling for legalization and regulation of all drugs as the best way to cripple the drug cartels economically. Fox recently said passage of Proposition 19 would be a "great step forward" and could "open the door to these ideas for us."

Comments

Vicente Fox was a good and smart man. Felipe Calderon sounds like he is either self-deluded or works for the cartels.

Quote Originally posted by What Exit? View post
Felipe Calderon sounds like he is either self-deluded or works for the cartels.
Bolding mine, because I've actually heard this theory in regards to members of the US government as well. As long as the drugs are illegal, the cartels and other organized crime interests continue to make money from them. As soon as we start legalizing and regulating, we cut into their profit margin.

Considering the horrors that have been happening in Mexico over the past few years, I think you'd have to be deluded or working for the cartels to think that depriving them of money would make things worse in the long-run. It's like someone in 1920s Chicago saying that repealing Prohibition would make Al Capone's criminal empire stronger.

Legalizing pots makes so much sense it hurts.

It empties jails of harmless folks, it raises revenues by taxing what was once contraband, and it pretty much ends drug-related street violence. Sure, there
will still be hard-core drug traffic, but if pot is legal, I expect that demand for harder-core illegal drugs would drop.

It's insane that we're still waiting around for this to happen.

Here's a problem...will pot farmers have to put up fences?

Quote Originally posted by Oliveloaf View post

Here's a problem...will pot farmers have to put up fences?
They don't even need to do it outdoors. The eventual profits would far exceed any security costs, if the business is set up correctly.

Quote Originally posted by Oliveloaf View post
Sure, there
will still be hard-core drug traffic, but if pot is legal, I expect that demand for harder-core illegal drugs would drop.
I have a friend who used to deal in pot and the occasional illicitly obtained prescription. She stopped, I believe, when her supplier tried to push her into selling harder stuff. So, yeah. Pot's pretty much only a "gateway drug" because the same people illegally selling pot are also illegally selling harder stuff.

Quote Originally posted by Oliveloaf View post
Sure, there will still be hard-core drug traffic, but if pot is legal, I expect that demand for harder-core illegal drugs would drop.
Yeah, I'd think the same. If you can walk around with an entire ounce of pot legally, suddenly the appeal of drugs that aren't as legal goes down.

If this passes, the federal government is still going to "vigorously support" federal pot laws and some local law enforcement says they'll be enforcing federal law even if state law allows it.