FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT VICENTE FOX SAYS TO DEBATE LEGALIZING DRUGS.

Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, strode onto a St. Louis
stage Tuesday night wearing a conservative business suit and
pedestrian black loafers. The cowboy boots and "Fox" belt buckle that
were his trademarks while in office until late 2006 were gone.

The serious attire gave hint to the serious message he delivered:
Mexico should consider legalizing some illicit drugs.

The towering man with a baritone voice spoke to a jammed house at the
Busch Student Center at Saint Louis University. A few hours later in
Mexico City, his successor, Mexican president Felipe Calderon, kicked
off his country's Independence Day celebration at the traditional
mass gathering in El Zocalo plaza.

As Mexico celebrates the 199th anniversary of the cry for
independence from Spain, it is reeling from drug violence sown by
feuding cartels. In St. Louis, Mr. Fox suggested there needs to be a
new uproar, one that surely would reverberate north of the border.

"We need a public debate whether to legalize drug consumption," he said.

That topic might be unthinkable in U.S. political circles, but it's
gaining traction in Mexico as drug violence worsens.

An estimated 10,000 people have been slain in drug-related killings
in Mexico since early 2007. By way of perspective, in all of the
United States, with a population three times larger than Mexico's,
15,000 people died from murder or manslaughter in 2007.

Mr. Fox said he initially opposed Mr. Calderon's decision to mobilize
the military against cartels, but said, "Now Calderon has to continue
the war and win."

"I had not envisioned that it would go this far," Mr. Fox said.

In August, Mexico decriminalized "personal use" amounts of marijuana,
cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs. The idea was to allow law
enforcement to concentrate on fighting organized crime. Now,
authorities are encouraging drug abusers to seek treatment rather
than face prosecution.

The United States, predictably, reacted negatively to
decriminalizations that define personal use of marijuana, for
example, as 5 grams or less (about four cigarettes). Now Mr. Fox is
suggesting that Mexico consider taking the next step: legalizing drug
consumption entirely.

Mr. Fox says a thirst for riches propels the street violence. So
legalizing drugs -- as Holland has done -- could have the same effect
that ending Prohibition had in the United States in 1933: Removing
the incentive for criminals.

But if the domestic market in Mexico collapsed because of
legalization, the export market might become even more valuable. Any
move toward legalization would work only if done in concert with the
United States, Mr. Fox said.

"The whole problem in Mexico derives from the huge consumer market
here in the United States," he said in an interview before his speech.

More than 1,600 persons have been killed so far this year in Ciudad
Juarez. Across the border in El Paso, Texas, which bills itself as
the nation's "third safest city," officials worry that the violence
will cross the border.

Mexico imports $250 billion in U.S. goods each year; economics alone
dictate that the United States must do whatever it can to help solve
the its neighbor's crisis.

Mexico's challenge, Mr. Fox said, is to preserve the gains made
before the drug violence escalated and a worldwide recession took
root. That will require a willingness on both sides of the border to
think radically.

- -- Gilbert Bailon