Decriminalization

CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama will highlight trade and business opportunities in Latin America at a regional summit in Colombia this weekend, but other leaders may upstage him by pushing to legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs in a bid to stem rampant trafficking. Obama, who opposes decriminalization, is expected to face a rocky reception in this Caribbean resort city, which otherwise forms a friendly backdrop for a U.S. president courting Latino voters in an election year.

Legalization of drugs: Bravo! for all of us. I'm Colombian and as such I've suffered the horror that this last year's illegal business has produced not only to our Third World society, but to the American people. Violence has been the medium in which this demand-and-supply deal has taken place. I do not want youngsters depending on drugs and most of all I do not want youngsters seeing this business as the only way out of poverty. Let's legalize, let's take the criminal part away from selling and buying.

It has been nearly 40 years since President Nixon began the "war on drugs" in 1971. Its objective from the outset was to suppress the manufacture, distribution and consumption of illicit drugs. By all of those measures -- and by common agreement -- the multibillion-dollar effort has been a failure. Supply is plentiful, distribution sophisticated and consumption steady.

I found it interesting that it is the politicians and not the police who favor re-criminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana. (Federal drug czar) William Bennett, (former congressman and current state attorney general candidate) Daniel Lungren and (Dist. Atty.) Ira Reiner are indulging their own particular pipe dreams if they believe that treating marijuana users as felons will help solve the problem of drug abuse in the U.S. Despite its reputation as the "demon weed with roots in hell," medical and statistical evidence bears out the fact that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.

I was encouraged to read "Colombia's Drug War Must Be Won in the U.S." by William Ratliff (Commentary, Feb. 11). We need to overhaul our entire drug policy in the U.S. My family and I lived in Ecuador, a neighboring country to Colombia, and we are dismayed at how the U.S. drug policies in Colombia are now destabilizing Ecuador. We fear that this scenario will be played out throughout Latin America to the detriment of ultimate U.S. interests. Ratliff stated, "If the enormous profits from this massive drug industry were slashed through some form of 'decriminalization' as part of a broader program in the U.S., the level of corruption and violence in Colombia, Mexico and other countries would become much more manageable."

This seems an unlikely place to find judges calling for decriminalization of street drugs. Orange County is the fabled cradle of California conservatism, where suburbanites come together in fear of God, Democrats and anything that smells of Los Angeles. Or so goes the stereotype.

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp has refused to publish the recommendations of a state advisory commission which has recommended that California legalize marijuana and consider decriminalization of other drugs. The San Francisco Examiner disclosed that Van de Kamp's office refused to pay for the printing of the Research Advisory Panel's recommendations.

Mired in a bloody battle with major drug traffickers, Mexico is quietly eliminating jail time for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. The government of President Felipe Calderon says removing the penalties will help in its fight against traffickers by freeing up law enforcement resources and shifting attention from minor consumers to big-time dealers and drug lords. The law also provides for free treatment for addicts. But critics say decriminalization sends the wrong message amid a drug war that has claimed more than 11,000 lives since late 2006.

The International Drug Policy Reform Conference in downtown Los Angeles might not seem like a sensible campaign stop for a Republican presidential hopeful. There was reggae music blasting, little lapel pins shaped like marijuana leaves, and a speech by California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the uber-liberal former mayor of San Francisco who is famous for granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But on Thursday, Gary Johnson stood there before an audience of drug decriminalization activists, drawing cheers for his promise that if he wins the Republican nomination and is elected president, he will issue a full pardon for anyone serving prison time for a non-violent marijuana crime.