Pubdate: Sun, 04 Mar 2012
Source: Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, CA)
Column: It's A Gray Area
Copyright: 2012 Daily Pilot
Contact:  http://www.dailypilot.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/578
Author: James P. Gray
Note: JAMES P. GRAY is a retired Orange County Superior Court judge 
who lives in Newport Beach.

DRUG PROHIBITION HAS FAILED U.S., MEXICO

March 3, 2012 | 6:58 p.m. Editor's note: Judge James P. Gray (Ret.) 
was a speaker Feb. 16 at the closing banquet of an international 
forum titled "Drugs Unbalanced - After a Century of Their 
Prohibition." The forum was sponsored by Mexico United Against 
Delinquency, and was held at the Anthropological Museum in Mexico 
City. The following is a summary of his comments.

As we part company, I wanted to use my time to present a final 
summary of this forum. But for reasons I will discuss, that cannot be 
done completely at this time.

But to begin. The title of the forum presents a question that simply 
must be asked by all caring and responsible people around the world: 
Where are we after a century of drug prohibition?

Furthermore, the symbol that describes the forum of trying to stop a 
gun from being fired by putting a finger in its barrel really well 
describes the status quo.

There are four realities that the world is facing in this area. They 
are: 1) The presence of these drugs in our communities brings harm; 
2) All of these drugs are here to stay; 3) We can either have these 
drugs in our communities with drug cartels and other gangsters, or 
without them; and 4) The money from the sales of these drugs can 
either go to gangsters to pay for guns and corruption, or it can go 
to governments to be used for such things as fixing roads, educating 
children and paying for health care.

As amazing at it may seem, all of the complex and multifaceted issues 
about drug policy come down to only one question, which is: Will the 
reduced harms from the regulation and control of these drugs by the 
government be outweighed by the increased drug usage caused by the 
drugs no longer being illegal for adults, and being sold at the lower 
prices necessary to drive the gangsters out of the business?

The benefits that would be seen from regulation and control are 
clear. Why? Because, if you think about it, prohibition never works 
as well as regulation and control.

As proof, I suggest to you that the biggest oxymoron of our day is 
the term "controlled substances." Why is that? Because when a 
substance is prohibited, we completely give up all control to the 
illegal sellers. That includes control over the place and time of 
sale, price, quality, quantity, advertising and age restrictions, as 
well as the ability to license the sellers and generate taxes from 
the transactions. So in actuality, we couldn't get worse results than 
under drug prohibition if we tried.

But I said that I cannot completely summarize all of the effects of 
this forum. Why? Because the work of this forum is not yet completed.

In the future, I foresee that the history books will cite that on 
Feb. 14, 15 and 16 of 2012, Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia held 
a forum that directly resulted in a national debate with no taboos. 
Not only were candidates for president in Mexico forced to address 
this issue openly, honestly and realistically, but most candidates 
for other offices were forced to do so as well.

And the strong voices from this forum joined with those of Colombian 
President Santos; Guatemalan President Molina; former Mexican 
President Fox; former New Mexico Gov. Johnson, and those of the 
Global Commission on Drugs, with such luminaries as former Secretary 
of State George Shultz and former Colombian President Gaviria, and 
whose message was later adopted by former United States President Jimmy Carter.

And all of these voices persisted with an appropriate sense of 
urgency that resulted in great and beneficial changes worldwide.

Maybe the history books will also read that this forum helped to 
convince your current President [Felipe] Calderon to tell the 
government of the United States, like only he could, that throughout 
his term of office he tried to make the policy of drug prohibition work.

It obviously did not work, but it directly caused almost 50,000 
deaths along the way. So now he believes that Mexico must adopt a 
policy that is good for Mexico. Thus, he now recommends that his 
country withdraw from the United Nation's Single Convention Treaty, 
because it requires each signing country to pursue this failed policy.

I believe that the most patriotic and effective thing I can do as a 
citizen of the United States of America is to help the country I love 
repeal this failed and hopeless policy of drug prohibition. And may I 
say to you as my new good friends here in Mexico that the most 
patriotic and effective thing you can do for the country you love, is 
to do the same.

So as I close, I leave you with two guarantees. The first is that 
both of our countries will repeal this failed and hopeless policy of 
drug prohibition. I cannot say when, and I cannot say to what, but it 
certainly will happen. And the second is that within a mere three 
years of that repeal, virtually everyone in both of our countries 
will look back and be aghast and astonished that we could have 
perpetuated such a failed policy for so long.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom