That’s the powerful message from former Mexican President Vicente Fox is this very hard-hitting video interview with BBC News.
- DrugWarRant.com, the longest running single-issue blog devoted to drug policy
Join us on Pete's couch.
Send comments, tips,
and suggestions to: Recent Comments
on John Walters and William Barr linked to Nazis: “More on opiate receptors. I had a physician who recommended Salvia Divinorum. He later asked me to keep his recommendation…” Apr 17, 11:40
on John Walters and William Barr linked to Nazis: “University of Leipzig researchers examine the molecular mechanisms of the opioid receptors and their different functions: 12-APR-2024 — Drugs that…” Apr 14, 17:36
on John Walters and William Barr linked to Nazis: “Do you think the Nazi’s view on marijuana was shaped by the League of Nation’s Drug Laws of the 1920s,…” Mar 31, 09:12
I have to say, I wholeheartedly share Fox’s analysis. There are two things, however, that might be worth considering. On the one hand, it is still a mystery to me why Fox did not join (or was not invited to join?) neither the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, nor the Global Commission on Drug Policy, considering that Fox was expressing similar opinions well before they had published their respective reports — It is interesting to note, too, that in a similar fashion to the Latin American ex-presidents that signed both reports, Fox didn’t oppose the US drug policy while in power, either. I supposed, that’s Realpolitiks for you. (As it is always the case in politics, more daring alternative explanations have been intimated…who knows?) Whatever the case, his vocal demands are most welcome.
The second thing to consider is whether Fox’s stance on drugs is guided by ulterior political motives, for although I share the questions raised by Fox regarding the current situation in Mexico, he gives no credit to recent declarations given by the current president, Felipe Calderón, both in Mexico and in the US.
Even though Calderón had in the past expressed reservations about drug legalisation, he has somewhat somehow changed his tune and he now shows a more favourable position regarding legalisation — admittedly, for political and strategic reasons, he uses “market alternativesâ€, but the implication is obvious. This is what he said recently:
«Consumer countries are morally obliged to reduce their vast economic demand. If you can’t cut it, cut the economic profits. You have to find how to staunch this demand. Seek out all possible options, including market alternatives, so that drugs trafficking ceases to be a source of violence in Latin America …»
I do believe that now is a golden opportunity for drug producing countries to unite around a common purpose: to put an end to Prohibition and the War on Drugs. It is time that Latin America give their unconditional support to Felipe Calderón’s call for Legalisation & Regulation to solve the so-called drug problem.
There is no doubt that rejecting or opposing Prohibition and the War on Drugs might carry huge costs in term of retaliations by the “international communityâ€, i.e. by the US, the largest consumer of drugs in the world and the most belligerent war on drugs warrior. What we should always keep in mind is that no price can be higher than the one drug producing countries have already paid and will continue to pay as long as this insane and irrational regime remains in place.
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
Great interview aside from that ignorant twit asking the questions.
I couldn’t disagree more, pfroehlich2004. If anything, we should congratulate the BBC for broadcasting the interview. As for the reporter «…ignorant twit asking the questions» she is doing what good reporters do: play devil’s advocate, ask the hard questions, highlight/find/poke fun at the holes in the guest’s arguments or whatever he/she believes should be asked in order to make the issue clearer to the listener.
I’m willing to admit I was wrong. I had guessed the first “market alternatives” statement was a slip, and would be disowned or backpedaled right away. He seems to be serious about this.
I have a hard time reconciling his continued pursuit of a Military solution to a problem when he acknowledges it cannot be solved that way. Is his power so circumscribed that the U.S. and the PRI make the rules there? Seems to me that if you recognize this reality the least you can do is halt or slow the bloodshed.
Below is the link to the talk Vicente Fox gave at the Cato Institute two days ago. It really is worth listening!
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/302158-1
Thanks, Gart.
This is the link to the extended version of Fox’s talk at Cato Institute calling for Drug Legalisation. It is 70 min. long but anybody interested in the legalisation issue, be it in favour or against, ought to listen to in full. Q&A start around the 37min. mark
http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=8452
Please, spread the word; in my humble opinion, it’s that important!â€
@Darkcycle: The “market alternatives” statement was from Calderon, who remains coy about legalization.
Fox has been on our side for a few years now.
I know, Pfroe, I didn’t mean to give the impression that I was confused. I read “Fox” and thought- Calderone…
My first read was a scanning error, then I couldn’t figure out why people were correcting me!
Dark,Fox is like all ex-politicians,,all he can do is talk about what needs to happen,never mind that he did nothing while in office,he has no power to enact anything.
And Calderon still wants the rest of the 1.4 billion dollars in cash and equipment promised by the US,,and 2 years late now getting to him.
You can find Fox’s explanation, admittedly rather unconvincing but informative nonetheless, at the very beginning of the Q&A section here:
http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=8452
As I mentioned before in my reply to Darkcycle:
This is the link to the extended version of Fox’s talk at Cato Institute calling for Drug Legalisation. It is 70 min. long but anybody interested in the legalisation issue, be it in favour or against, ought to listen to in full. Q&A start around the 37min. mark
Please, spread the word; in my humble opinion, it’s that important!â€
(Sorry if I’m beating a dead horse with this stuff, but it bears repeating.)
OF COURSE it’s necessary to end prohibition to stop the violence. Prohibition IS violence. As the saying goes “to pass a law means nothing, to enforce a law means everything.” And prohibition is enforced through violence, i.e. men with guns locking other men in cages. Some might object to that characterization by pointing out that ALL laws are enforced through violence. Sure. But when you arrest someone for an actual crime (you know, the old-fashioned kind with victims), law enforcement is effectively acting in our collective self-defense. In other words, when you arrest and punish someone for a crime like murder (violence against someone’s person) or theft (violence against someone’s property), you are countering (and thus reducing) that violence. On the other hand, when you arrest and punish someone for a victimless “crime” (like unlawful possession of dried plant material), you are introducing and thus fueling violence. Kind of an important distinction.
.
.
It also serves the purpose of civilizing our base instinct for revenge. Without the criminal justice system a significant percentage of people would take it upon themselves for revenge, and it might include people like wives (husbands) and children of perpetrators whether they had anything to do with the offense or not. It would also possibly include people who had nothing to do with the crime but were thought to be the perpetrators. Since it would just be blood lust it wouldn’t stop there, the relatives and associates of those targeted for revenge would then seek their own revenge. It really wouldn’t be a nice way of life at all.
He who initiates violence first is the immoral actor.
We know that it wasn’t drugs that declared war and statrted the “WOD” and started the violence. Therefore, the immoral actors in the WOD must be the prohibitionists.
Hey Duncan, that thread at the Columbia Spectator was still alive until just the other day. If you got a second, you especially will like the way I killed it.
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/10/04/smoking-ignorance#comment-341024515
.
.
I find the people in Arizona that comment on medicinal cannabis to be stunningly ignorant. I’ve been thinking Arizona must have the largest per capita incidence of people with GEDs as well as the largest per capita incidence of people who had to cheat to get even that degree.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Arizona-nurse-I-was-fired-for-having-a-medical-marijuana-card-132357488.html
Seriously, these people left me speechless and fish mouthing.
——————————————————————————————
Toodles!? Where the heck did that come from? 😀
It’s hard to believe that thread has been active this long. Your ignorant friend did respond again. I decided to add a note:
Duncan, don’t run down GED’s….50% of High School graduates can’t pass one. That’s the statistical target we shoot for. You guessed it…for a time I was administering and scoring GED’s for GEDTS at Seattle Central Community College, the King County Jail and at the County youth detention center. In my career I’ve administered and scored thousands of GED’s along with the more specific inventories a psychologist uses. If it exists in “Measures for Clinical Practice”, I’ve used it.
I wish I could tell you some of the heroic efforts some people have had to put in to get that GED. Seriously…I’m not kidding. You can take the test in a number of languages, but that test result is notated,and Colleges don’t like accepting people who didn’t take it in English. So most people will elect to take it in English. If you are an immigrant with limited English, you need to master written English to get one. That’s tough enough. But add to that the fact that most of these people need work on top of that to achieve adequacy in at least one of the five subjects, plus writing sample that it gets really difficult for some.
You will not be able to cheat on that test, without the active facilitation of the examiner. Not even he (she) knows which version of the test will be given with which essays.
Admittedly, it ain’t no GRE or MCAT, but it is more than a good measure of educational achievement.
As a tester I had one asian woman, a nurse in her former country, but when she got here she had very limited spoken English, and no written English at all. On top of that, turns out that with English she was dyslexic, in her native language (Korean if I remember) this had never manifested. She worked her buns off for three years and failed 14 times, but she finally got hers. She worked as a hotel maid for that entire time, unable to work as a nurse. Everybody at testing at Seattle Central and in the Adult Education program there, gave her a party when she had finally finished. I must say, she was justifiably proud. So, have a care for the folks who earned their HS diploma that way. Remember, half of all HS graduates can’t pass one.
Oh…Toodles…some guy I know. 😉
The staff at the azfamily don’t like to approve comments that disagree with the uninformed posters like armedpatriot. I tried more than once to post different variations of this:
“Here are a few links proving that the federal government is lying when they tell us cannabis isn’t medicine.
http://bit.ly/oJCpaR
http://1.usa.gov/dtbcVO
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21910367
Patent number 6,630,507 owned by the US Department of Health and Human Services is a pretty significant one, in more than one regard. The cannabinoids in marijuana are “Useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”
It resonates pretty loudly in the compassionate mind.”
…but the staff weren’t having it, and won’t approve comments like that.
US: Protest For Medical Marijuana During Obama’s California Tour
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/10/protest_for_medical_marijuana_during_obamas_califo.php
Wishing them good luck on that and I hope no one gets hurt.
I hope CA tokers are forgiving and help the mmj crowd protest,,but they can remind them that had they voted last year,,this protest might not have been needed.
The feds would be too busy chasing recreational to have worried about medical.
Hey everyone, Sabet’s fertilizing the lawn at Huffington Post again, claiming that the CMA’s call for legalization is not based on public health (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-a-sabet-phd/cmas-decision-not-based_b_1024471.html).
For some reason, I am never able to log in to leave comments on HuffPo(probably because the country where I reside blocks Facebook).
Could someone please post the following comment on my behalf?
[Not based on public health? Really? Because I’ve just read the entire CMA white paper and it specifically states:
“Thus far, the criminalization of cannabis has proven to be a failed public health policy for
several reasons, including:
a) The diversion of limited economic resources to penal system costs and away
from other more socially desirable uses such as funding health care,
education, transportation, etc.;
b) The social destruction of family units when cannabis users are incarcerated,
rather than offered treatment and other social assistance;
c) The disparate impacts that drug law enforcement practices have on
communities of color;
d) The continued demand for cannabis nationally, which supports violent drug
cartels from Mexico and other international sources;
e) The failure to decrease national and international supplies of cannabis from
criminal and unregulated sources;
f) The failure of the federal government‟s limited actions through the “War on
Drugs†in mitigating substance abuse and addiction.”
Presumably, Kevin hopes his audience won’t bother to read the actual document and simply take his word for it. For those of you who would like to reach your own conclusions, the white paper is available here: http://www.mercurynews.com/medical-marijuana/ci_19131773?nclick_check=1%5D
Thanks!
Posted Pro,,we will see if it makes the cut.
Thanks for that!
It made the cut Pro and is on the page @ 10:51am.
.
.
If you can use The Onion Router you can make your IP seem to be coming from almost anywhere in the world.
https://www.torproject.org/
What kind of a country blocks Facebook? Is the goal just to stymie communication or what??
I teach ESL in Vietnam. While the censorship here isn’t as extreme as in China, the Party does like to keep a lid on political organizing and anything which might facilitate such activity.
Officially, it’s not blocked (just suffering “technical malfunctions”) and everyone can get around the firewall, but FB-linked comments sections continue to stymie.
Over my head, Duncan I can barely open a regular browser.
Man. I’m disappointed in Sabet. This isn’t his first foray into propaganda, he’s made it his career. But to make such a feeble effort at Huff-Post? He’s gotta come back and at least look at the response. He’s not just bruised, he’s been dismembered.
That is the best they have?
Oh, BTW, The name I use on Facebook is “Curtis Creek”, so when you see a comment by him, it’s me. The photo is Asha.
Hey, do you guys know which states are going to have cannabis legalization initiatives on the ballot in 2012? Also do you have a sense for which of them are likely to succeed?
I would search NORML for that info Francis,,they seem to keep up with that stuff pretty good.
Their site is worth supporting,,just because of the state to state coverage of marijuana laws and activities.
To my knowledge, California has several, Colorado has eight, and Oregon has three. These are all tentative; none have yet made it to the ballot. The California initiatives aren’t looking promising at the moment because of lack of funding; there’s one called Regulate Marijuana Like Wine, which looks very good on paper, but at last check it only had $10K in the bank, although it could very well be the others haven’t yet disclosed their green.
.
.
It’s way too early to worry about lack of funding. But at least we now know why Richard Lee quit, giving the lame excuse of lack of funding.
Didn’t the Colorado people file 8 proposed initiative so they could pick the one they think most likely to win?
I’m pretty sure Sensible Washington is planning to try to get one on the ballot, but the number signatures needed to get an initiative on the ballot in Washington is outrageously prohibitive. They need almost half what California requires.
Montana will have a medicinal cannabis patient protection law on the ballot in 2012. Arkansas and Ohio have people intent on doing so in their respective States, Peter Lewis is sponsoring the Ohio initiative so we can be pretty sure Ohio’s initiative isn’t going to be short of cash.
The serious fundraising will come later, but funding is still crucially important because it still takes big funding (like $1.4 million in California) to pay the wages of petition-gatherers to get enough signatures, and the deadline is December. See below:
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/regulate-cannabis-like-wine/content?oid=3570910
Hmm… the responses aren’t quite as encouraging as I’d hoped. My sense is that getting full legalization passed in at least one state (any state) is an extremely important domino in terms of getting other states to follow suit / forcing the issue with the feds.
Sensible Washington failed to get enough signatures. Two problems: First, they didn’t have paid signature gatherers, and Second, some dolt thought it would be a good idea to have a competing legalization petition. This diluted the effort, with people signing one, and then being approached with the other, but thinking they’d already signed it.
.
.
DC, that was for 2012? I was aware that they pucked up the 2011 ballot initiative, but not that they’d blown it again for next year.
They can’t start yet for 2012.
.
.
Deep Dish, I think you misread that article. The only December deadline mentioned is Steve Kubby’s self imposed deadline of December 1 to have 6 figures in the bank.
According to the California Secretary of State’s Initiative Guide the absolute latest date that an Initiative can be qualified would be sometime in the middle of June.
.
.
DC, I thought we were talking about the future (2012), not the past (2011). But it doesn’t matter as I’m skeptical that SW has the competence to collect enough signatures to qualify. I sure would like to be wrong about that.
———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———- ———-
Francis, if it gets on the Oregon ballot I think that’s the State which is most likely to vote in favor. Did you know that in 1997 the Oregon Legislature passed and the Governor signed a law to re-criminalize cannabis? Oregonians got that law overturned in a 1998 ballot initiative winning by better than 2:1. Oregon was the 1st State to decriminalize in 1973.
1998 was a horrid year for the Know Nothings. Arizonians gave them a pasting by voting down a ballot initiative to forbid the legalization of any Federally controlled substance in schedule I, as well as stripping the Arizona Legislature of its ability to overturn a voter initiative without a supermajority of 3:1 or better.
Alaska adopted medicinal cannabis in 1998. This was during the window of the unconstitutional (State) 1990 ballot initiative that had cannabis criminalized in Alaska between 1991 and 2002.
They can’t start collecting signatures yet, but they’ve learned their lessons. This time around I recall hearing they will pay gatherers, and will have more organized efforts.
Reformers and President Vicente Fox are now in an alliance with the Left Party in Germany which also wants to legalize all drugs:
“Delegates for the hard-line socialist Left, Die Linke, voted 211 in favour and 173 against, with 29 abstentions, to endorse a full-legalisation policy.â€
http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20111022-38377.html
A new thought for you to tweak Pete:
“”It makes people fear marijuana because their government says it is so dangerous it must be prohibited.
It makes people fear their government when marijuana is considered so dangerous that even testing it for medical efficacy is prohibited.””
Why the fuck is reality so hard to handle? Francis, catch up. NO fucking state will be legal to sell pot as long as the CSA stands, and the Feds have jurisdiction over Commerce and anything Ganja sold or given away is deemed Commerce by the Supreme Court. The only states that are legal for any reason are California with Prop 215 and Alaska with its Constitutional amendment granting small amounts. Feds aren’t busting individuals because they can’t. They busted Tommy Chong for paraphernalia and not the pound of pot they found. Richard Lee wants to sell it, and it ain’t going to happen as long as the Commerce Clause is Law. Not without overturning the CSA. Get over it. It’s not Obombo breaking promises he never made and its not because its right or profitable or anything other than Neocons selling the Ganjawar. Domino my ass! We gathered signatures for 10 cents each and passed the Compassionate Use Act not the Medical Marijuana Act. No initiative has ever passed w/o paying. Casino’s were paying 25 cents. Rape and Pillage probably more. Every buyers club that gets raided loses the computers and patient lists first. Now those who needed a card to do what 25 million of use have been doing all along. Only we can still buy a gun. Most of the puppets in this country wouldn’t walk out in the rain to save their souls let alone someone else’s. Illiterate from censored school books and obedient to any thing that gives them a paycheck. Fossil Fools. Those wishing and praying for peace are idiots concerning the Neocons. They just murdered over 4000 Americans in Iraq based on a lie. Thousands of civilians. To the Koch’s, Bush’ Dick Armey of Neocons, that’s less taxes treating 4000 wounded or homeless. Stoners and Growers and minimum wage earners are just $72k/yr tax paid cage renters. Blending in with the 2.2 million presently behind bars and 6 million in the system. Each making someone money and all paid by taxes. Nothing personal, just the business of war. What else is it good for? Absolutely Nothing, say it again…
Losing the Mexican Drug War may be better than winning… linx&pix
Yeah, the Free Mexican Air Force is flyin’ tonight
* Mexico Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Drugs
* Mexico legal-drug bill condemned
* U.S. Cautious on Mexico Drug Measure
Ganjawar Puppets Cave… again
* Mexico President Seeks Review of Drug Law
* OH, MEXICO (OH, THE EMBARRASSMENT)
* MEXICO MOVES TO DECRIMINALIZE DRUG POSSESSION
— NO, WAIT, NEVERMIND
* Threats From USA Force Mexico to Drop Decrim Plans
Sorry ya all, this is a bit of topic, but if you want to end the war on drugs…get out there and do something about it. Protest!
Just found this article this morning.
I encourage you all to go read it…then go to comments and straighten out the morons and trolls.
http://news.yahoo.com/occupy-chicago-least-100-arrests-city-park-080349020.html
I went to a local protest in my area last nite. I was a bit discourgaged.
The were only about a 100 or so people(better than no one). That just means not enough people around here have woke up. That just means those 100 and myself have alot of work to do.
Theres lots of negitive people out there saying this is just a bunch of lazy good for nothings that want everything handed to them.
Yes there are lazy good for nothings that do want everything handed to them. Just as there are racists in the tea party.
That doesnt discredit the message.
I dont mind working hard for what I have….as long as I can keep what I have.
You shouldnt have to work your whole damned life to pay for a house, just so when you retire and cant afford the tax they put on you and come take it just because your old and cant work.
You shouldnt have to work your whole life, be taxed to death just so they can make war and enrich themselves on your dime.
You shouldnt have to work your whole life, pay into SS jsut to depend on government to decide if you should get a C.O.L.A. or not, mean while they give themselves a 17% raise.
You shouldnt have your life sucked from you in the form of taxes and have said life wasted by people that dont give a rats ass about you or your needs. I should be able to decide what to waste my life on.
Theres a reason America exists. It exists because people got sick of being taxed to death and treated badly by a government.
We got no where to move to people! This is it, all or nothing!
So, all you 1%â€ers that put me down, call me lazy? Take your trash down the road.
All you 99%’ers that havent figured out that you are the 99%, get your heads out of the sand or your ass and do something for your country other that putting down those that are trying!
Corruption: A disease that spares no one.
Remember…for every one person at that protest, there are two who didn’t hear about it in time, ten who wanted to be there but couldn’t and a hundred more who almost went, but didn’t.
As it gets worse, these numbers will change.
And remember, lazy good for nothing people who want everything handed to them do not usually get off the couch to go to one of those things.
Those fearful of jackboot thugs don’t show up, either.
I don’t think anybody is fearful of jack booted thugs. I took my three year old son to one of the occupy protests.
Maybe some people are cowering, but I’m guessing they’ve been that way all along.
However, this PDF from the National Lawyer’s Guild should be required reading before any protest action is undertaken:
http://www.nlg.org/wp-content/files_flutter/1286308219bodyfinal.pdf
.
.
DC, Chicago is where they send wannabe jack booted thugs to learn how to be jack booted thugs.
I read the Chicago arrest article at Firedoglake. The cops let them have pizza delivered first, then very nice-like arrested those who wanted to BE arrested. But after they let them eat first.
Not one can of pepper spray was emptied, unless it was enhance the flavor of the tasteless Domino’s Pizza.
New York was the worst the occupy movement has seen so far, but seriously, spend a little quality time with the PDf I linked above. It’ll curl your hair AND straighten it back out again. I’d expect that sort of response sooner rather than later.
We have the lowest nominal tax rates in the developed world, if tax relief is what you are after, that ain’t likely. The relief will come when the rich start to pay their fair share. Then we can look at the regressive nature of our tax system and relieve the little guy from having to shoulder the big guy’s load.
Woah…
Skimming over the last bit of the above comment was horrible until – then I re-read & saw tax system – still… = *cringe*
“Perfectly Legal†by David Cay Johnston
A Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporter argues that the rich have ruthlessly rigged the tax system against the rest of us. Aren’t you shocked?
By Farhad Manjoo
In 1913, the year the United States created the federal income tax, a small company near Chicago, CCH Inc., published a handy little volume documenting every tax regulation newly on the books. At 400 pages, the “Standard Federal Tax Reporter†wasn’t exactly a brisk read, but CCH’s publishing decision proved prescient. Federal taxes, it turned out, were an idea with permanence; the U.S. tax code, in all its future labyrinthine intricacies, would be a growth industry. In the 91 years since it was first published, CCH’s “Tax Reporter,†now the tax accountant’s Bible, has expanded nearly exponentially by the divine right of Congress; the 2003 volume outlining every tax rule in the land drones on for 45 times the length of the Good Book — almost 55,000 pages. continue reading
Nothing personal, just the business of war
The NWO is the Top 1%
We are the People…
The rich have the Republicans protecting their interests,the Democrats cover small businesses,it’s the people under the poverty level that have no representation,,and they get the first budget cuts.
The problem is that with unemployment at the level it is,,the increase in the number of impoverished people has climbed at the same rate as the unemployment rate.
I am waiting to see how many people up north freeze to death,,how many homes get burned in this winter coming at us.
Their goal is to stop funding states and locals as much as possible, and keep it all in Wall St and DC. Also by sucking out as much as they can. Buy Local! First they cut the poor, then they replace our workers with foreign scab sweatshops. Soon they won’t even need us as consumers. Steady building China and India’s middle class to do that. It’s Neocons, not republicans or democrats. They just give in to the coercion. The drug war is a product they sell. But we are the people, and we are the majority if only we the people didn’t fight each other. We’d have it all!
It’s just a thought, but why not take OUR money out of the banks, stop OUR mortgage payments, and max out OUR credit cards. Do all three and watch ’em sqweel. Just too radical ,right? Organize , strike, and overcome.
.
.
Well I decided I liked living in my home too much to let it go, but the rest of the plan I implemented in 2008. I heard so many people asking “where’s my bailout?” and my answer always has been, the little guy has to help himself. It’s just not going to be handed to you unless you’re “too big to fail.”
Silver, copper, and lead. The three best physical investments available in the US today. Screw gold.