Mexico and the Future of the War on Drugs

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.” Hunter S. Thompson.

The discussion of our nation’s war on drugs (ahem) there are clearly a wide array of considerations that must be made. Not so much on whether a change is needed, which seems to be more and more widely supported, but in exactly how to make that change. $1 trillion has gone out the door since the “war” began (which is still a staggering figure, even if we’ve been desensitized by 000’s from the past six months) and yet drugs are cheaper and more powerful.

I know we haven’t been receiving the best returns on our government’s investments lately, but if anyone can take that figure, not to mention the lives brutally lost, robberies, clogged prisons, shredded families, and other unquantifiable social costs, and try to argue that such costs are outweighed by the benefits, then I’d really like to hear it. (In truth, it’s pretty clear the only real argument on the other side is that drug reform means you are soft.)

President Obama has made it clear that he does not support the legalization of marijuana, despite the issue gaining some steam largely on fiscal reasons earlier this year. But there are many changes that can be made that do not require what will be described as an official validation and justification of drug use.

There are active efforts to repeal federal drug prohibitions, which would allow for states to have a greater say in their drug laws. (What ever happened to states’ rights, not to mention personal responsibility, liberty, property rights, less government, and all of the other “small government” principles?)

Many countries, including Canada and now Mexico, have chosen decriminalization. Point being: there are options and we need to look at them. Particularly with this monumental shift in the country that is one of our main drug-war allies in addition to serving as the main drug-running conduit. Vincente Fox received a similar bill in 2005 and was immediately told by our previous Administration that his signature would effectively destroy our bilateral relationship. The current bill sat on Calderon’s desk for 10 weeks as a patiently waited for a signal from the current, heavily-burdened Administration.

Most importantly, on a media-watching side-note, it is truly remarkable how the political realm is being dominated by vanilla stories that are trying to fill in the dead news cycle and blatant misdirection trying to cover up serious issues.

With 24 hour news and a billion blogs, the Mexican policy change should be a much bigger story. The social, economic, and political ramifications are all huge and could have major effects on how our society views itself and how our government manages this social perception for generations to come.