MarijuanaNews.com: Mexican Congress Begins “The Debate On The Regulation of the Cannabis Plant in Mexico.” Richard Cowan A Guest Speaker
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
The Obama Administration is still doing the wrong thing, but it is doing it with the enthusiastic support of Mexican President Filipe Calderon, who is even more prohibitionist than former President Bush (and he speaks better English, too.)
Unfortunately, when he assumed office in 2006, Calderon really had no choice but to fight back against the narcotraficantes who had escalated their violence to a point that it was challenging the authority of the Mexican government.
Mexico is far from being a “failed state” – and it was understandably offended by being labeled as such – but it was losing control of many areas, most critically the border cities.
Calderon’s counterattack using the Mexican Army has generally been very popular, but now there are serious questions being raised about its long-term viability. The US will be providing Mexico with more weapons, but that does not mean that any military is suited for law enforcement, and there have already been serious allegations of civil rights violations in areas where the Army has taken over.
Moreover, in so far as the Mexican Army succeeds in reducing the flow of contraband, it is much more likely to reduce the quantity of marijuana than of hard drugs. That is what I have called the “Iron Law of Prohibition”, the harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs.
Richard Cowan is a former executive director of NORML who represented our position in three days worth of discussions with the Mexican Congress. Read his entire report at MarijuanaNews.com, his excellent news site on, well, figure it out. Richard tells me the activists in Mexico are eager to organize. I’ve been in contact with a few Mexicans who are also ready to get started with a Mexico chapter of NORML.
Topics: Felipe Calderon, Mexico, narcotraficantes, Obama Administration, Richard Cowan
