Mexico want to decriminalize drugs...again

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has seen the light and taken a different path. He now wants to decriminalize small amounts of drugs. Under the proposed legislation, Mexico will pull its resources and go much harder for the drug dealers.

Is it deja-vu all over again?

Do you remember back in May of last year, former (or then) President Vicente Fox started a bill that would legalize a larger amounts of drugs than today's bill, but, after "heavy pressure" by U.S. officials, he vetoed his own bill.

I said it before, and I will say it again: the law of supply and demand trumps any law Congress, Mexican or American, will pass to the contrary. If there is a demand on drugs, there will be a supply. If there is no demand, then drugs will disappear. But there is a demand for drugs, and so the drug-suppliers will want to fulfill the demand. And when users and dealers enter the stage voluntary, there is no person whose rights is being violated--there is no victim, and the prohibitioner's work is much harder.

But, for nearly 40 years, when Richard Nixon made the "War on Drugs" "America's public enemy number one", the public has been duped into believing that drugs are evil, that drugs are dangerous, and we spent over 12 billion dollars to eradicate the problem...with nothing to show for it. In fact, according to government's statistics, marijuana is the biggest cash crop in the United States, with an estimated value that exceeds $35 million. The war on drugs is a complete failure, and innocent victims take the fall.

But, the most important reason opposing the drug war is a moral one. I own my body, not anybody else but me. And thus, I am responsible with my body. If I want to ingest something into my body, I have a right, and a responsibility, with that something, whether or not that something is meat, vegetable, candy, milk, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, or whatever I happened to ingest. And if I have a rash, or an allergic reaction, or an overdose, or anything unexpected, I have to buy an antidote, or go to see a doctor, or anything that makes me feel better. That is called individual liberty and personal responsibility. Individual liberty and personal responsibility are opposite sides of the same coin. If you have one, you must accept the other.

Calderon (I guess) wants you to have those two things...a little. But he knows the true winners in the drug war is the drug agencies and the drug king-pins. The loser is the innocent civilian. Time will tell if Calderon made the right decision.