ONWARD GOES THE WAR ON DRUGS

MEXICO WAS on the verge of executing a bold plan to decriminalize
small amounts of drug possession.

Now it's not.

Mexican President Vicente Fox, who proposed the idea two years ago,
backpedaled, saying he would no longer support the bill that the
legislature pushed through in a last-minute effort last week.

That'll help Fox's political relationship with the United States. We
doubt it'll do much for the people of Mexico.

Sixteen months ago, President Fox declared "the mother of all
battles" against drug trafficking. The result has been a horrifying
spate of violence -- more than 1,500 lives in the past year. It
doesn't seem to be having an impact on Mexican drug cartels, which
are growing in strength as Colombia's drug lords decline. The Mexican
cartels spend as much time battling each other over lucrative trade
routes into the United States as they do decapitating police officers
in Acapulco. Much of the problem lies with the Mexican
criminal-justice system, which experts acknowledge is corrupt.

The proposal to decriminalize possession of small amounts of drugs
was an attempt to combat these problems, not to turn Tijuana into
Amsterdam. By freeing the police from running after small-time
offenders, the thinking went, they would take fewer bribes and
concentrate on the big fish -- drug traffickers. The law would also
have strengthened penalties for drug trafficking.

Unfortunately, the reaction of the United States was all
self-involved bluster. The mayor of San Diego threatened that the
proposed law could jeopardize immigration reform. Mass media hysteria
broke out over the idea of American college students crossing the
border to toke marijuana or snort heroin. We hate to point out the
obvious, but if American college students want to try drugs, they're
doing it at home: 45.8 percent of Americans ages 12 and older report
having used an illicit drug at least once, one of the highest rates
in the world.

We're not arguing that decriminalization is necessarily the best
answer to Mexico's problems. But clearly they've realized that the
war on drugs, American-style, hasn't made drugs less available or
increased the safety of their people. A new approach is necessary --
ideally one that would include anti-corruption measures, creative
enforcement strategies and the diversion of nonviolent drug offenders
into treatment rather than jail.

The latter in particular, is working well for California: When the
University of California at Los Angeles released its comprehensive
analysis of the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act to zero
fanfare last month, they found that offering nonviolent drug
offenders treatment not only works, but is cost-effective. In the 30
months following his or her arrest, the report found, the typical
eligible offender had no convictions for drug, property, or violent
crime. The act saved state and local governments $173.3 million over
that same time period.

This is what America should have said to Mexico: New approaches can
work. Hysteria can't.