GET SERIOUS ABOUT DECRIMINALIZING DRUGS; OTHERS ARE

The international war against the black market trade in narcotics
seems to be at a tipping point, as a new approach is gaining traction
globally: decriminalization. More and more policymakers are coming to
the view that it is wrong to jail drug users as criminals.

Last November, Massachusetts voters approved a referendum that
decriminalized marijuana. In December 2007, voters in Denver approved
a law that made adult marijuana possession the city's "lowest
law-enforcement priority." In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
announced it is time to closely study the decriminalization of
marijuana, which is already the state's largest cash crop.

American policy makers seem to be cautiously following the shift in
public opinion on drug policy. A recent Zogby poll showed that 52
percent of those polled thought marijuana should be legal, taxed and
regulated. The shift is probably the result of experience: Many
Americans have either used drugs or have relatives or friends who
have tried marijuana or other drugs and do not see their friends and
loved ones as criminals.

More people are asking why some drug users have to be jailed while
other users (such as Olympic champion Michael Phelps) maintain
successful, even flourishing careers.

Drug policy reform is moving even faster abroad. In 2001, Portugal
decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Not only has
the predicted spike in drug use and a public health crisis failed to
Advertisement materialize, Portugal's drug usage rates compare more
favorably than many other European states that have kept up a strict
"lock 'em up" approach.

In Latin America, policymakers impressed by the experience of
Portugal and other countries have begun to move in that direction.
Earlier this year, a commission headed by three former Latin American
presidents "" FernaZedillo of Mexico "" called on the governments of
the region to break the taboo of discussing alternative drug policies
such as decriminalization.

Just recently, Argentina hosted the first Latin American Conference
on Drug Policies, a high-profile event sponsored by, among others,
the United Nations, the Pan-American Health Organization and the
Anti-Drug Latin American Initiative on Drugs and Democracy. The
participants, including high-ranking government officials and experts
from the region, labeled the war on drugs a failure and suggested a
more pragmatic approach to drug policy based on decriminalizing
possession for personal consumption.

During the event, Anibal Fernandez, chief of staff for Argentine
President Cristina Fernandez, announced that her administration will
be submitting a decriminalization bill to Congress in the upcoming
months. An Ecuadorean official said similar legislation will soon be
debated in that country's National Assembly. Brazil is considering
similar changes.

Mexico recently decriminalized possession of any drug so long as the
amounts were small enough to indicate personal use. The Supreme Court
of Argentina recently ruled that it is unconstitutional to punish
marijuana users if no other person is harmed by such use.

There is no ideological common denominator among those questioning
the war on drugs. Both liberal and conservative policymakers are
dissatisfied with the gang violence that pervades the black market
and the futility of trying to stop adults who wish to use drugs from doing so.

We seem to have finally reached a tipping point where the costs of
the drug war clearly exceed any perceived benefit. Drug addiction is
a problem. But just as alcohol prohibition was a mistaken approach to
the problem of alcoholism, so too is the drug war a mistaken approach
to drug abuse.