President Obama is unable to distinguish between drug decriminalization and legalization.
At the Summit of The Americas:
The Colombian president also said that the war on drugs isn’t working and that he would like to see a debate on decriminalizing them.
Obama’s response:
But Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office has said he won’t entertain any policy changes that would lift the prohibition of illicit drugs, while U.S. President Barack Obama repeated at the summit on Saturday that the White House believes “legalization is not the answer.”
“The White House believes”?
Obama is deflecting/avoiding the issue, first by deliberatly lumping two totally different issues together, illegal drug legalization vs. decriminalization. Second, he lamely generalizes the issue by stating the position of “the White House”. Isn’t President Obama in charge? He’s attending a major summit of nations- why can’t Obama simply express his take? Why can’t he enter into a dialogue with the leadership of Latin American nations on this issue?
Safe to assume Obama won’t admit/discuss the militarization of the war on drugs, either.
This is all academic; it would be instructive to list all of the failed U.S. policies (both here and abroad) which Obama supports- just like several repuglican and “democratic” presidents before him.
What exactly did Obama accomplish at this Summit? VP Biden already made it clear recently that the failed war on drugs is to continue.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/14/harper-summit-americas.html