A SANER WAR ON DRUGS

A panel led by former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico
recommended a new paradigm for the war on drugs earlier this year,
and now Latin America is heeding their advice. Mexico and Argentina
have begun to relax penalties for possession of small quantities of
illegal drugs, treating personal use as a victimless crime and
husbanding resources for the fight against big-time narcotics
traffickers in a global business that the United Nations values at
more than $300 billion annually. This is a sensible strategy that
Brazil and Ecuador apparently are poised to adopt; the Obama
administration has prudently taken a wait-and-see approach to the changes.

Argentina's Supreme Court last week struck down a law that punished
adults with up to two years in jail for marijuana possession, saying
personal use is a private affair and that prison time is, therefore,
unconstitutional in such cases. Adults are "responsible for making
decisions freely about their desired lifestyle without state
interference," the ruling said. "Private conduct is allowed unless it
constitutes a real danger or causes damage to property or the rights
of others." In response, the administration is preparing a law to
decriminalize possession of small quantities of drugs while
continuing to pursue producers and traffickers.

The Argentine decision came as Mexico decriminalized possession not
only of marijuana but of major narcotics, including cocaine, heroin
and methamphetamine. There, too, selling drugs is still a serious
offense, and dealers face prison sentences.

Decriminalization of drugs for personal use eliminates a lucrative
source of bribes for corrupt police officers. Critics on one side
argue that anything short of full legalization will continue to fuel
a hugely profitable illicit drug trade, while critics on the other
side say any shift in the direction of legalization condones drug
usage and sends the wrong message at a time when thousands are dying
in the battles between and against drug cartels in Mexico. This page
recognizes the problems of drug consumption in the U.S. and,
increasingly, in Latin America, with 460,000 hard-core addicts in Mexico alone.

The Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy argues that drug
consumption is best reduced through education and prevention rather
than jail time, that drug addiction is best addressed as a public
health problem through rehabilitation programs and that the big fight
is against organized crime. For these nations, waging tough struggles
with limited resources, it makes sense to shift law enforcement,
courts and prisons away from small fry and concentrate instead on
disrupting violent cartels.