Politicians have a tendency to be honest about difficult issues only when they are leaving or have already left office:
ENDING the consumption and the trafficking of illegal drugs is “impossible”, according to Felipe Calderón, Mexico’s outgoing president. In an interview with The Economist Mr Calderón, whose battle with organised crime has come to define his six years in office, said that countries whose citizens consume drugs should find “market mechanisms” to prevent their money from getting into the hands of criminals in Latin America.
In an interview recorded last month for this week’s special report on Mexico, Mr Calderón said: “Are there still drugs in Juárez [a violent northern border city]? Well of course, but it has never been the objective…of the public-security strategy to end something that it is impossible to end, namely the consumption of drugs or their trafficking…
“[E]ither the United States and its society, its government and its congress decide to drastically reduce their consumption of drugs, or if they are not going to reduce it they at least have the moral responsibility to reduce the flow of money towards Mexico, which goes into the hands of criminals. They have to explore even market mechanisms to see if that can allow the flow of money to reduce.
“If they want to take all the drugs they want, as far as I’m concerned let them take them. I don’t agree with it but it’s their decision, as consumers and as a society. What I do not accept is that they continue passing their money to the hands of killers.”
It would be nice if the administration of a second-term Democratic president could find the balls to at least reclassify cannabis as a Schedule 3 or 4 drug. It is not as dangerous as LSD or as addictive as heroin, and it does have some medicinal purposes. Some examples of Schedule 3 drugs: Vicodin, Special K, anabolic steroids. Some examples of Schedule 4 drugs: Xanax, Valium, Halcion.
A Schedule 1 drug is supposed to have no medical use and be so dangerous that it cannot even be taken safely with medical supervision. It’s also supposed to have a high potential for abuse. I think heroin belongs in that category but it is impossible to see how marijuana can belong in it.
A reclassification of cannabis doesn’t require an act of Congress. The administration can do it unilaterally if they feel the drug is currently misclassified.
It’s kind of like refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court because you’ve come to believe that the law is unconstitutional. Only you have even more justification for changing how you treat the law because Congress has already ceded the power to classify drugs to the Executive Branch.
Get it done, Obama.
