Time To Legalize Pot?

Today, CNN poses the latter question on its webpage, encouraging us to answer. Underneath, it says: 

“Thousands have been killed in Mexico's ongoing drug war, and some are suggesting that the best way to stop the violence is to legalize drugs. What do you think? It is time to legalize marijuana, or would that create more problems?”

One way to approach this problem is with more questions:

1. Why was alcohol legalized after the Prohibition, even if there are sociological studies which show that the effects of alcohol on society are much worse even then opium?

2. Who is interested in keeping the illegality of drugs?

3. What is deadlier, a gram of cocaine sniffed voluntarily up your nose or a gram of lead (=bullet) forced into your skull?

Answers:

1. After 13 years of Prohibition, alcohol was legalized again, because the Prohibition Act was not effective: there was a lack of enforcement, hence a growth of crime, and the drinking rate increased steadily. The number of federal convicts over the course of the prohibition period increased by 561 percent! Criminals organized in powerful groups to collect the steady source of income offered by laws against victimless crimes such as drinking alcohol. As a result of the money involved in the illegal business, rivalry between gangs skyrocketed. During Prohibition, the income reason caused over four hundred murders related to gangs in a year, only in Chicago. Does this sound familiar today, if we are thinking of illegal drugs and its enforcement?

 

2. Speaking of those interested in keeping the current status quo: the drug business (OBVIOUSLY: NOT ONLY POT!) is in the hands of very potent people: if you have seen the fortunes amassed by Colombian and Mexican drug lords, their wealth is a pale reflection of what US drug lords possess, since they are living in the market and are selling cut down merchandise. Their lobbying is so powerful that it is more than difficult to encourage politicians to even raise the issue of legalization!

 

3. What is deadlier? Of course, the bullet is deadlier than the gram of cocaine! I asked this question because I have heard people in Colombia suggest their government should demand the extradition of the CEOs of US weapons industries, since their weapons entered the country illegally and are in the hands of thousands of criminals and illegal armed groups, killing scores of civilians, judges, police and military forces. What is even more ironical: Colombia is still suffering from a guerrilla war, which reaches 50 years back, but around 30 years ago this war has been heavily financed with US dollars, stemming from the regular cocaine sniffing population, which went to the rebels and drug lords. So we have not only been (and still are) financing the illegal armed forces in Colombia, but our weapons industry also has and still is providing arms to these rebels and mafiosi. No wonder Colombians are mad at us, since the war they are fighting for so long has even been deadlier than the war which now is being fought in neighboring Mexico. The irony is still deeper: on the other hand, we have been financing the Colombian government with our tax dollars in its fight against the drug lords and rebels…

 

So, my answer to the first question about the legalization of pot, is yes, it’s more than time, but not only for the legalization of marijuana. Cocaine, at least, must also be included, and all the rest of hard drugs, but with a parallel program for addicts, such as that realized in Great Britain.

 

I invite you to tune CNN tonight at 9 pm EST, when Anderson Cooper presents his “360” program about the drug war raging on the Mexican border and how it threatens the US.