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NEWS > BUSINESS > FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT ADVOCATES DRUG LEGALIZATION IN U.S.
FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT ADVOCATES DRUG LEGALIZATION IN U.S.
October 25 2011
Mexico City, Mexico - For a short time in the early part of this century Mexico was on the upward swing, people believed. With a dynamic new President and an exploding economy the country was finally taking a turn for the better. Things change though, and in Mexico things changed quickly. That President is gone and the economic growth in the nation has been stifled by record levels of crime, setting the nation back decades.
Now though that former President, Vicente Fox, has shown his face again and made it very clear what he feels should be done to secure the future of his country. In short, he would like the United States to legalize all drugs in order to reduce the amount of drug-related violence in his own country, presumably hoping that drug cartels will simply move northward in order to avoid entanglements with the law. Fox though did stop short of legalizing murder, which has also plagued his country.
“Prohibition didn't work in the Garden of Eden. Adam ate the apple. We have to take all the production chain out of the hands of criminals and into the hands of producers — so there are farmers that produce marijuana and manufacturers that process it and distributors that distribute it and shops that sell it,” Fox told the BBC.
Mexico has decriminalized drug possession, a model which he believes could work in the United States.
Mexico has had at least 45,000 drug-related killings in the last five years.
“We have seen over and over again that prohibition doesn’t work all that well. I mean it does work reasonably well in some areas, like with murder and rape, but there are many areas in which it just doesn’t work nearly as well. Unfortunately, despite what Fox if saying, there are no good examples of that with drugs,” said Scrape TV Drug Policy analyst Jason Walker. “Yes, you don’t see this kind of violence in countries like the Netherlands or Portugal but you wouldn’t anyway so they aren’t necessarily the best examples. In Mexico things have only gone downhill since drugs were decriminalized and that is not the best example from which to make an argument.”
Mexico changed their drug laws in 2009. There were about 12,000 drug-related killings in 2010, the most in a single year.
“The one advantage that legalizing drugs in the U.S. would have is that drug gangs 
could more easily move into the country and sell. In an ideal world drugs would be sold like Aspirin but that just isn’t likely to happen anytime soon, to be frank, and until it does drug gangs have a corner on the market,” continued Walker. “It would, though, spread out the violence across to another country which would really help Mexico. The U.S. is far better equipped to deal with this level of violence and so it would be better for everyone if they took on some of the burden. I mean one of the problems in Mexico is that it takes a whole lot of killing before anyone will even consider going after a person but in the U.S., its one murder and you’re out. If they can take on some of these gangs, well, they could be wiped out in short order.”
Fox has also advocated legalizing beheadings, but that has also fallen in deaf ears.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
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