The pressure continues to mount, from round the world, for America to rescind its Reefer Madness policies with three former presidents from Brazil, Mexico and Colombia now urging President Barack Obama to formally decriminalize cannabis!
-AStP
Cardoso, Gaviria, Zedillo Urge Obama to Decriminalize Marijuana
By Joshua Goodman (jgoodman19@bloomberg.net)
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — Former presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia said the U.S.-led war on drugs has failed and urged President Barack Obama to consider new policies, including decriminalizing marijuana, and to treat drug use as a public health problem.
The recommendations by former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, along with Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, were made in a report today by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy.
Among the group’s proposals ahead of a special United Nations ministerial meeting in Vienna to evaluate global drug policy is a call to decriminalize the possession of cannabis for personal use.
“We need to break the taboo that’s blocking an honest debate,” Cardoso said at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro to present the report. “Numerous scientific studies show that the damage caused by marijuana is similar to that of alcohol or tobacco.”
Gaviria, who as president of Colombia from 1990-1994 worked with U.S. anti-narcotics agents to hunt down and kill cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar, said he hoped Obama invests in harm reduction and prevention efforts that would relieve Latin America of the burden of fighting drug traffickers.
Recognize the Failure
“It makes no sense to continue a policy on moral grounds without getting the desired results,” said Gaviria, citing an October report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office showing drug reduction goals in Colombia have not been met. “Obama, being a pragmatist, should recognize these failures.”
The group was created last year to focus the global drug debate on harm reduction and prevention efforts and away from policies based on the eradication of production and the criminalization of consumption.
Latin America is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine and cannabis and a major supplier of opium and heroin. It’s also been the main focus of U.S.-led drug eradication and interdiction efforts ever since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared “war on drugs” in 1971.
The GAO report, made at the request of then Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, now vice president, Joseph Biden found that production of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, increased by 15 percent in Colombia since 2000. The U.S. has provided Colombia with $4.9 billion in anti-narcotics aid since 1999 with the goal of reducing coca production by half.
Gaviria said Mexican President Felipe Calderon should demand Obama do more to reduce drug consumption. The U.S. pledged $400 million and increased cooperation with Mexico last year as part of an anti-drug plan known as the Merida Initiative.
More than 5,300 people were killed in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and Mexican lawmakers have said the U.S. holds some responsibility for the bloodshed because demand for narcotics has made the cartels powerful.
Last Updated: February 11, 2009 16:15 EST
Prohibition has failed horribly, just like everyone knew it would. now the rest of the world is hoping and waiting for the U.S. to make a move, as it was the U.S. that forced prohibiiton on the world!
maybe…just maybe people are starting to figure this mess out…prohibition didn’t work before and it’s not working now….stop the insanity and legalize hemp before more and more peoples lives are ruined
Find out why more and more cops, judges, and prosecutors who have fought on the front lines of the “war on drugs” are standing up and saying we need to legalize and regulate all drugs to solve our economic, crime, and public health problems. Decriminalization will not solve the problem: http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com
If everyone would please call and flood President Barack Obama’s own message line at 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414 and tell him we want him to REPEAL our Federal marijuana/hemp laws now, every day until our Federal Gov. Repeals all marijuana/hemp laws, then “We the people’s voices will be finally heard loud and clear! Copy this and pass it along! MAKE A DIFFERENCE! CALL
I agree weed is not any more harmless than our legal drugs.I think obama should give some consideration to what our fellow leaders want to embrace in their own society.I mean it would help Americans out if we decriminalized it even more,I live in minnesota and think that if we could help make the push to legaliztaion that one law could create millions of jobs and also millions of tax dollars for our gov. and to help with the recession. I only wish our gov. was as fair as they claim,without our gov being fair I say we are not free.
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Demand seems to go up when something is illegal, it’s really the biggest appeal to certain drugs. It seems like Cuban Cigars are as popular as they are in the U.S. for one reason, is they’re illegal.
If we made certain drugs legal, then the demand would just die down by more than half.
The drug war with Mexico is a good one as long as its needed that is to say when the us taxes and decriminalizes weed the WAR WILL BE OVER Thank john Lennon
Finally…
The Drug WaR problem has come to Realize
that the only way to solve the problem is to Legalize
The government talks of trying to cut down on gangs and terrorism. They say that most of the money that these groups get comes from drug trafficking, then why not legalize it and thus: Make it harder for gangs and terrorists to make money, tax the items and make the government money, stop wasting money on a failed cause(AGAINST OUR PEOPLE), open up hundreds of thousands of jobs in the cultivation, processing, distribution, medical, and economical areas, keep jails open for more violent criminals, save money from finding and erradicating drugs, etc. This would also give the people of our country more respect to the government as the federal government will not be overriding the laws of the state governments.
As alcohol has proved: Prohibition Does Not Work!!!
Amsterdam has proved this too as they have made marijuana “boring” to the public
Hopefully the government will someday be run by the views of the people, not the few in charge.
It seems to me that as I sit here and smoke this herb that there religion fortells that their god put on this earth, and the only thing that their bible tells them that they were not allowed to touch the tree of the forbidden fruit, I mean unless they can scientifically prove that cannabis is the forbidden fruit. I sit here as a second class citizen when my fellow smokers throughout the country is black bagged and put into a system where some of them are never heard from again. All because they make a life choice to smoke an herb that vitalizes and stimultes their minds. It seems to me that we are back on those steps with a speech giving by the late great Martin Luther King Jr. because people unless you wake up your civil rights are violated everyday. What you as a responsible american citizen needs to not be afraid and let your voices be heard. Prohibition is a proven fact of something that doesn’t work. When the first prohibition on alchohol didnt work it was legalized.
What came from that was a booming immediate industry that created 100’s of thousands of people to work immediately. At todays inflation rates a new industry would create billions of dollars in revenue. Hey what do you know that would help the economy another issue at the center of the political world. I for one will smoke as a responsible american citizen in my own home.
So good luck and hope these 8 years are a helluva lot sainer than the last 8yrs. Smoke weed everyday, keeps the doctor away.
Im 50 years old. I’ve smoked weed for almost 35 years and I’m in good health. I was arrested in 1996 for growing 6 plants in my stairwell closet. Being arrested did nothing but make me hate my goverment and over half the U.S.(weed haters). I wish Mexico would take our money and tell the DEA ( the marijuanna price support system) to KISS THEIR ASSS.
The government is all about money. If they weren’t already making a ridiculous sum of money off of marijuana then I have no doubts it would be legal. They don’t care about the health of people. They just want the money. Plus why would they want to legalize something as mentally liberating as marijuana. I personally have to go to court next week for my first possession charge. I don’t know how to satisfy the charge because I can’t find a job in today’s economy. How do they expect people to pay for these ridiculous charges when they can’t even supply us with a decent economy? The US government is now incompetent.
P.S. support the fair tax
I saw this story on the ticker at the bottom of the screen on CNN the other day, and thought it was the most intelligent thing I’ve heard from a politician in a long time. Full legalization is the only real answer to the violence and corruption that plague the marijuana trade today. Unfortunately, while the thought behind them is welcome, our current half-assed patchwork quilt of decriminalization, criminalization, and medicinal legalization is set up to fail. Getting the cops off attack dog status is a step in the right direction, but in failing to write specific rules for the production and distribution of legal marijuana, we have left the door open for criminal involvement in the trade to flourish. If we really want change, we need to begin presenting decrim and medical legalization schemes as merely small parts of a package deal including, ultimately, a regulatory framework similar to that governing alcohol and ways to deal with the job turmoil this will cause law enforcement. Saying this will create jobs does no good if we lose as many jobs in one sector as we create in another; we have to remember that LEOs, judges, probation officers, and prison builders are all citizens too, and they will not support us if our plan threatens to drive them into the gutter. We also have to plan for bringing marijuana into the legal economy: if we legalized tomorrow, who would control the market? The small farmer whose success will ultimately help America, or the large multi-national corporation that will take every penny earned and deposit it in a high yield Swiss account for the CEO? Right now, it would be the latter. We have the opportunity to build an entire industry and market sector from the ground up; lets build it to favor small business and create a model domestic industry.
these are ex presidents.this seems big.we need to blog this up it says their headed to the u.n.cnn and msnbc have this story on their web sites im 50 and sick and tired of being considered a criminal.and for the last 6 months or so ,no longer smoking.cause of random testing that cant define if your high.only if you have been high in the last 30 days or so.they can be tricked but i dont want to risk my job .now i just read in kentucky their trying to test drivers.and dui laws are no joke either.plus a positive result can stay in your records and pop up at the most inconvenient times .but we need to find this story around the web and vote it up .get it noticed.although obama indicated he wasnt in favor of decriminalization he did say he was going to look at the budget and cut antiquated policies that didnt make fiscal sense.im 50 as i said ive waited all my adult life for pot to get leagle ive been hopeful but it would be nice to go pick up some leagle dope and come home and get high without all the paranoia.if nothing else come up with a test to prove if high while driving or working so i can at least get high nights and weekends.ps thank god for spell check.oh yeah if we cant have pot we need to criminalize.tobacco,alcohol,caffeine,and obesity.cause their health risks and set a bad example.
I don’t think their voices will be heard by the US government.
Legalize all drugs. But we need the right to grow any types plants we want for personal use. We need to have that right respected.
I’ve worked a a mental health counselor in emergency services now for 7 years and in all that time I’ve seen many, many people come into the emergency room with issues related to pharmaceuticals, be it drug seeking behaviors because they’re addicted to xanax or something similar, or because they’re suicidal and either their antidepressant isn’t working any more or they’re threatening to overdose on it. I’ve also seen people gain considerable weight when put on antidepressants and now there has been a recent link to diabetes from taking serquiil as prescribed. People build tolerances to these drugs all the time and have to keep going back to their psychiatrists to get their medications adjusted, or they still end up feeling depressed and suicidal and need/want to be hospitalized. Yet I have yet to see a single person come in to the ER because they smoked too much pot and are having psychiatric probles with that. In fact, very few people that come in with a psychiatric emergency and are drug tested have any trace of marijuana in them. So you tell me which is worse for you.
This makes so much sense to me. There is a witch hunt for marijuana supporters that makes employment in this day of unemployment more difficult.
For 35 years the DEA has been fighting this idiotic battle, to no avail. What a waste of money……
After a bad car accident I suffered from head trama.I had grandmols all the time,being hospitalized several times a month for 7 years, on this drug&that drug,which caused a whole host of other problems.NONE worked!BUT GOD!!!told me in my gut to use MARIJUANA.I was against it.I was despret!I resurched and found in a published book marijuana being used for seziers.So I tried it. I have been sezier free for 15yers.Genesis:1-11&12 And He saw that it was good,check it out!!!Mariluana should not be compared to any drug alcohol, or tabacco as there is NONE!!!IT,s about time!!!
… that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government,…
These are words from The Declaration of Independence. Apparently this government considers these words to be just meaningless words written on a piece of paper. To me, these words give me the right to smoke marijuana if it makes me happy, which it does. This government is not a government for the people. That is proved to a vast part of the citizens everyday. We are not a free people. We are just puppets at the control of this governments. If Obama allows for this to keep happening then he is no better then what we have had before, controlling our lifes and our minds.
… that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government,…
These are words from The Declaration of Independence. Apparently this government considers these words to be just meaningless words written on a piece of paper. To me, these words give me the right to smoke marijuana if it makes me happy, which it does. This government is not a government for the people. That is proved to a vast part of the citizens everyday. We are not a free people. We are just puppets at the control of this governments. If Obama allows for this to keep happening then he is no better than what we have had before, controlling our lifes and our minds.
I feel so sorry for the Mexicans who have died because of me. I didn’t intend for anyone to get hurt. But I recognize the fact that merely by being American, I am guilty of 5,300 heinous murders, all directly caused by me. I am guilty of directly pulling the trigger, using my Amerikkkan psychokinesis. Therefore, in retribution for my grizzly murders I offer my wife, kids, family and money for free to the Mexican gangbangers to take and dispose of at will. It’s only right since I deserve to die for murdering all those poor righteous gangbangers. I hope the Creator sees fit to send a firing squad to show up on my doorstep and dispense my death penalty soon, and to do the same to all 300 million Americans. Let’s face it, we deserve it folks. We are evil and we have a lot of mexican gangbanger blood on our hands. I also apologize if my being white has offended anyone. Being white automatically makes me naturally quite racist and for that I should probably be skinned alive and boiled into stew to fill hungry Mexican tummies who need my body more than I do. My only hope is that Captain Obama save me and intercede on my behalf. He is the last great hope.