Good Day Humboldt County!
Even as the Obama Administration pours more taxpayer money into the War On Drugs, there’s a candid admission among many officials in government that the so-called war was lost a long time ago.
Mexico’s new president is shifting his country’s focus in priorities. Since 2010, programs for building the rule of law and stronger communities have become the largest items in the State Department’s antidrug budget, with the bulk of the money assigned to Mexico.
I wrote the following column on the subject back in March - Growing global movement to legalize drugs faces uphill battle Nothing has changed since then. The only exception is that more people are speaking out against our current drug policies right now.
Meanwhile officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Justice Department say they now recognize that arresting kingpins and seizing large drug shipments have failed to make Mexico more stable, largely because of corruption and other flaws in the Mexican justice system.
The time to end this useless war on drugs is now.
“America’s drug problem is shifting from illicit substances like cocaine to abuse of prescription painkillers, a change that is forcing policy makers to re-examine the long and expensive strategy of trying to stop illegal drugs from entering the United States.
This rethinking extends beyond the United States, where policy makers are debating how to better reduce demand for painkillers. The effects would also be felt here and in Central America: With the drug wars in Mexico inflaming violence, some argue that the money now used for interdiction could be better spent building up the institutions — especially courts and prosecutors’ offices — that would lead to long-term stability in Mexico and elsewhere.” (Source)
Time for me to walk on down the road…
No comments:
Post a Comment