IS IT TIME TO LEGALIZE?

It's the only way for the US to control the demand for drugs, say
Andres Rozental and Stanley A. Weiss

Despite a surge of military and
police forces across the country, the killings continue - more than
5,000 last year. Some regions are terrorized by a wave of kidnappings,
assassinations and beheadings.

Iraq? Afghanistan? Pakistan? Somalia? In fact, the country - which a
recent U.S military study warned could be at risk of "a rapid and
sudden collapse" - is none other than Mexico. Two years into President
Felipe Calderon's war against the drug cartels, and the cartels'
ensuing war with each other, this is a nation at war with itself. To
be sure, the government has had its successes. Huge weapons caches
have been seized, large tracts of illegal drug crops have been
eradicated and an increasing number of cartel kingpins, couriers and
foot soldiers have been put behind bars.

But despite these tactical victories, Mexico's fight - attacking the
supply-side of the western hemisphere's drug war - will remain an
unwinnable war so long as its northern neighbor fails to attack the
demand side: Americans' insatiable appetite for illicit drugs.

When then-President-elect Barack Obama met President Calderon in
January, he reaffirmed Washington's support for Mexico's heroic
efforts. But he should remember Plan Colombia, which has cost American
taxpayers $8 billion. While Colombian cartels have been weakened,
there has been no significant reduction in the amount of cocaine and
other drugs shipped out of Colombia, according to the U.S. Government
Accountability Office.

So long as the vast American market for cocaine, heroin and other
drugs yields irresistible profits, the cartels will continue taking
the risks of producing, transporting and distributing the products
their customers want. Even with U.S. support for Mexico's fight - $450
million this year - the cartels will always have more money and guns
at their disposal. Even if the U.S.-Mexico border were improbably
sealed, the traffickers would find alternate routes to their American
customers.

Mexico's war on supply must be matched, once and for all, by a real
American war on demand.

Despite decades of a supposed U.S. "war on drugs" - including some of
the harshest penalties for drug use in the world - the percentage of
Americans using cocaine, heroin, crack, marijuana and methamphetamines
has remained largely steady in recent years, according to the latest
National Drug Threat Assessment. Given population growth, the number
of users has actually increased to 35 million Americans, including the
world's highest use rates of cocaine and marijuana.

So how to achieve major reductions in American demand for illegal
drugs, as well as the profitability and criminality it fuels?

Seventy-five years after its repeal, Prohibition remains instructive.
Like the 13-year ban on alcohol, the illegality of drugs failed to
curb demand. Like the bootleggers and gangsterism of that era, today's
drug cartels are simply serving popular demand.

As with the repeal of Prohibition, the U.S. must again follow a
common-sense approach by thinking the unthinkable: the gradual
legalization of some drugs.

For such a change in strategy, the U.S. must recognize that all drugs
are not created equal. It is now clear that marijuana and
methamphetamines do not have the same harmful effects as cocaine,
heroin, opium and other hard drugs. Discriminating among different
drugs - as does the new Massachusetts law decriminalizing possession
of less than an ounce of marijuana - points the way toward a more
rational approach.

At great cost, in blood and treasure, Mexico is fulfilling its
responsibility with a war on supply. It's time the U.S. fulfills its
responsibility with a real war on demand.