MEXICAN PRESIDENT MISGUIDED WITH BLANKET LEGALIZATION OF DRUGS

Catch-All Approach Has Only Boosted Corruption in Other Countries

Legalization of drugs - long an issue championed mainly by fringe
groups - is rapidly moving to the mainstream in Latin America.

Last week's surprise statement by former Mexican President Vicente
Fox in support of "legalizing production, sales and distribution" of
drugs made big headlines around the world.

Fox, a former close U.S. ally who belongs to the same centre-right
political party as President Felipe Calderon, rocked the boat at home
by indirectly criticizing the very premise of Calderon's all-out
military offensive against Mexico's drug cartels, which has cost
28,000 lives since 2006.

Calderon immediately responded that he opposes legalization of drugs,
although he has opened a dialogue with political parties about the
future of his country's anti-drug policies.

The left-of-centre Party of the Democratic Revolution announced that
it supports "de facto legalization" of drugs.

Fox's statement, first published on Saturday in his blog, went far
beyond a 2009 joint declaration by former presidents Fernando
Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Cesar
Gaviria of Colombia.

In that statement, the three former leaders questioned the
effectiveness of the U.S. war on drugs and proposed decriminalizing
possession of marijuana for personal use.

While the three centrist former presidents' proposal amounted to not
prosecuting people for consuming marijuana, Fox's proposal calls for
legalization of all major drugs - the whole enchilada.

In an extended interview, Fox told me that he is making his proposal
because drug-related violence in Mexico has reached intolerable
levels and because the experience of other countries such as the
Netherlands has shown that allowing drug sales has not significantly
driven up drug consumption.

"Prohibitionist policies have hardly worked anywhere," Fox told me.
"Prohibition of alcohol in the United States (in the 1920s) never
worked, and it only helped trigger violence and crime."

Since possession of small amounts of marijuana has already been
decriminalized in Mexico, what is needed now are bolder steps, such
as legalizing drug production and using the taxes it generates to
fund anti-drug education programs, he said.

"What I'm proposing is that, instead of allowing this business to
continue being run by criminals, by cartels, that it be run by
law-abiding business people who are registered with the Ministry of
Finance, pay taxes and create jobs," Fox said. Fox called for a
reversal of Calderon's decision to send the army into the streets to
fight the drug cartels because "the army is not prepared to do police
work, and we are seeing day to day how the army's image is losing
ground in Mexico" as a result of this war.

"Why didn't you come out with this proposal when you were president?"
I asked. Fox responded that legalization was often discussed in
cabinet meetings during his presidency, but that the urgency of such
a measure has increased since "because of the extraordinary cost we
are paying in a drop in tourism, a drop in investments and a lack of
attention to education and health."

In a separate interview, White House drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske
told me that drug legalization is a "non-starter" in the Obama administration.

Kerlikowske disputed the idea that alcohol prohibition drove up crime
in the United States in the 1920s, arguing that there were no
reliable crime statistics at the time.

And he rejected the notion that there has been no major increase in
drug consumption in the Netherlands.

"In the Netherlands, consumption did go up. In fact, the Netherlands
has been in the process of closing down hundreds of the marijuana
cafes that had been in existence because of the problems that are
occurring," he said.

My opinion: I'm not convinced that a blanket legalization of drugs
would work because government regulation of the cocaine and heroin
businesses in countries that already have high corruption rates would
result in greater official corruption.

On the other hand, it's clear that after four years of Calderon's
U.S.backed war on drugs, the cartels are smuggling more drugs,
killing more people and becoming richer.

Perhaps the time has come to take a step-by-step approach and start a
serious debate about passing laws that would regulate legal
production of marijuana, alongside massive education campaigns to
discourage people from using it.

Then, we could see who is right and consider what to do next.