Last week, Mexican President Felipe Calderon for the first time said a debate over legalizing drugs should be permitted to go forward. Later that day, after meeting with U.S. lawmakers, leading Mexican lawmakers called for legalizing marijuana in both Mexico and the United States – and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies called for legalizing all illegal drugs. According to columnist José Contreras of Mexico’s La Cronica De Hoy, it is a debate that is long overdue.
Although the legalization of drugs is no panacea, it could be critical to dismantling organized crime, since it would close an illicit multimillion-dollar market that generates extreme violence.
Dozens of drug-traffickers have been detained, and important kingpins have been located and eliminated, such as Arturo Beltrán Leyva and Nacho Coronel. But organized crime mafias still continue to operate as if nothing has happened, since this massive business hasn’t even been touched.
In Congress, there is also a willingness to discuss the issue. On March 24, the chairmen of the foreign relations committees in both houses received a delegation of U.S. officials with statements in favor of drug legalization.
The same day, Senate Foreign Relations Chairwoman Rosario Green said that the climate of violence that exists along the border demands that the governments of Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon draw up plans for legalizing marijuana use.
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Porfirio Munoz Ledo, spoke that day of the necessity of legalizing all drugs – and not only marijuana.
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