Guatemalan President to propose legalizing drugs

Officers of the Civil National Police arrange 336 kg. of cocaine seized after a confrontation with alleged drug-traffickers in the municipality of Rancho, Guatemala on May 31, 2011. / JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said he will propose legalizing drugs in Central America in an upcoming meeting with the region's leaders.

Perez Molina said in a radio interview that would include decriminalizing the transportation of drugs through the area.

The Guatemalan president said the war on drugs, and all the money and technology received from the U.S., has not diminished drug trafficking in the area.

He said drug cartels are to blame for the high rates of violence in Guatemala, which has a homicide rate of 45 per 100,000 people.

Perez Molina said he will bring the subject up with Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes when Funes visits Monday.

He didn't mention Saturday when the next meeting with Central American leaders will be.

[Herne42]

Prohibition is a stupid, and dangerous ideal.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford...The list goes on and on.....these were not dumb people. (read REAL non-wasp history please..and wake up)

Prohibition supports organized crime, as well as violent offenders...including pedophiles.

For those of you to brainwashed with government propaganda, Imagine selling bio-fuels to the Middle East...and cheap useless crap to the Chinese.
One can produce anything from cars, to new medicines to frickin' lunchboxes.

Prohibitionists are mind numbed zombies bent on world domination. And have no qualms about being slaves. And quite honestly, are so ignorant of their surroundings...they have no idea that creepy old man that moved in down the street molested 20 kids.....idiots.

[vivorio2000]

Of course, we cannot have all the drug lords and dopeheads of this world come to our countries.
Much better to designate one of the deserted islands in the Bahamas or Belize as a haven for the drug trade. Or maybe Cuba or Haiti would be interested to bolster their economies this way.

[magnumdr]

If any of those drugs get to our Country who should we go after? I personally thng that this decission is bad for this Country and the others that will have to deal with these drugs getting in to America. Can't people see what drugs are doing to our World. I say get rid of all drugs and live like we were supposed to live, by getting a real high from nature and our good friends!

[expatriate2]

You need to consider, of course, that there are currently 125 customs and border patrol officials in jails and prisons for cooperating with the cartels. Don't be so fast to talk about controlling drugs entering your nation. You're letting them in the same as you sent arms into the hands of the cartels.

[farmerbb]

There are two negative effects of drug use. First is the damage that MIGHT be done to the user and his/her personality. Second is the damage done by criminals trying to get enough money to BUY drugs. The money involved in making/distributing/selling drugs is now so huge that it threatens entire governments. Make it all legal. Maybe even have the gov't produce & distribute them, with guaranteed purity. Sell them for the cost of making them. That will drive the criminals out of the business quickly. You want to take drugs, go for it, as long as you have reached the age of majority. We don't (most of the time) put fences around the roof of every building to stop people from jumping off. It is understood that gravity has consequences. Taking drugs does too. People who want help to break the habit should be given government assistance, the funding for which should come from the now-cancelled war on drugs. More of that money can be spent on education. Anyone giving drugs to children should be jailed until they consume all the drugs they have in their possession. No food or water in the meantime.

[malcolmkyle]

The whole world watches while we pepper-spray, taser and cudgel our own citizens for exercising their birth-right to peacefully assemble; The whole world watches while we strip-search and anally probe our own wheelchair-bound great grandmothers on suspicion of being terrorists; The whole world watches while heavily armed & masked government thugs break into our homes to ridicule, bully, threaten and murder us for using or growing a medically efficacious weed.

The prohibitionist model is one of blind ignorance, abject failure and economic collapse. Its underlying ideology is one of fear, envy greed and hate. Never have so many been endangered and impoverished by so few, so quickly!

* Do you wish to greatly reduce, even almost eliminate the market in illegal narcotics? Then please help us to dismantle Prohibition enabling us to Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

* Do you wish to bring about an enormous reduction in the presence and influence of organized crime? Then please help us to dismantle Prohibition enabling us to Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

* Do you wish to reduce harm to the existing users and addicts - who may be your children, brothers, sisters, parents or neighbors - by allowing them safe and controlled legal access, which will greatly minimizing the possibility of 'peer-initiation' and sales to minors? Then please help us to dismantle Prohibition enabling us to Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

* Do you wish to see a reduction in the number of users or addicts, thus greatly curtailing drug related illness and deaths, while also reducing societal harm from problematic abusers? Then please help us to dismantle Prohibition enabling us to Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

Three simple questions for the unconscionable employees of the DEA, CIA & DOD: How much is that fence going to cost? How much is it actually going to stop? Won any good wars lately?

[you_MAY_be_right]

I am glad the whole world is not listening to your gibberish.

[bobnjersey]

[Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said he will propose legalizing drugs in Central America in an upcoming meeting with the region's leaders.]
--------------------------------------
that kinda talk will get you killed ... and not by the drug cartels.

[micmac666]

'Better weather than Amsterdam, but I'll miss the brothels on the canals.

[you_MAY_be_right]

Yeah, but the brothels will be filled with exotics, not just more white women. Build them and they will come.

[Freepress1111]

Wow, there's something different, a politician with a brain.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

I don't think the bad guys are gonna quit doing bad things just because drugs are legalized. Cutting their drug profits will just mean they move on to other pursuits with high profit margins. I also don't think that the lunatics who take drugs will be any less drama queens because drugs are legal. These morons often, but not always, create a life of strife and desperation for all those close to them. Legalization of marijuana seems appropriate enough, but don't hope that step will solve any of the root causes that make many of us violent murderers or useless, lethargic citizens. All it will do is keep a few harmless recreational drug users out of prison, which seems like a good thing.

[malcolmkyle]

Historically, the prohibition of any mind altering substance has never succeeded in providing what is needed, which is a safer environment for all the users, addicts, their families and society at large. We can therefore safely state: Prohibition will always spawn far worse conditions than those it's ignorant supporters claim to be able to alleviate.

While it is true that taking any drug (especially alcohol and tobacco) can sometimes indirectly affect others, this exact same argument was used to implement and painfully prolong alcohol prohibition during the 1920s. Alcohol related homicide, violence, wife battering and child neglect were definitely not curtailed, nor were they even slightly ameliorated during this earlier period of national Wack-a-Mole insanity. Not only did Prohibition exacerbate all of the above problems it also increased usage while bootleggers like many of our present day drug lords became rich and powerful folk heroes as a result. http://i.imgur.com/Ga1Gs.png

Similar to Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s, Drug Prohibition has given us rampant corruption, off the scale criminality, a bust economy and mass unemployment. On top of all this, it has gifted us the planet's highest incarceration rate, a civil war in Mexico, an un-winnable war in Afghanistan and an even higher rate of drug-use (legal & illegal) than in all other countries, including those that have far more libertarian policies.

When we regulate (as apposed to prohibit) a substance we do NOT automatically condone it's use; the regulations concerning alcohol and tobacco are there to protect us from the vast increase in criminality that would otherwise exist if these substances were prohibited instead of properly regulated.

A regulated and licensed distribution network for all mind altering substances would put responsible adult supervision in between children and their otherwise premature access to drug distribution outlets. Regulated and licensed distribution would reflect and respect society's values thus preventing children obtaining easy access to these dangerous substances. What we need is legalized regulation. What we have at the moment is a non-regulated black market to which everybody has easy access, including our children, and where all the vast profit goes to organized criminals, ruthless foreign terrorists and corrupt government agencies.

Prohibition Prevents Regulation - Legalize, Regulate & Tax!

[maiingan]

So, if drugs were legalized in Central American countries, does this mean all the drug addicts in the USA would move there to keep on using, to avoid all the crime and prison hassles?

[you_MAY_be_right]

No. Do you really think the Guatemalans will allow the dregs of our society to live there?