A FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT who was considered one of the United States’ major allies in its ‘War on Drugs’ has proposed legalising all drugs in an attempt to choke off the funding of organised crime.
Vicente Fox wrote on his blog that “legalisation does not mean that drugs are good, but we have to see [legalisation] as a strategy to weaken and break the economic system that allows cartels to earn huge profits.
“Radical prohibition strategies have never worked.”
Fox was succeeded by current president Felipe Calderon, who has led an often bloody military campaign against the drug cartels that rule Mexico’s underworld, in 2006.
28,000 people have died in drug-related crime in Mexico since Fox left office, while cartels have earned billions in drugs sold within the country and within the United States, which helps to fund Mexico’s anti-drug crime policing.
Despite the work put in by Calderon’s government, the country’s chronic drug problems show no signs of waning, with much of the country fearing the escalating violence could ward off potential investors seeking to provide employment in the region. Calderon, while not himself in favour of legalising drugs, is open to a public debate on the issue.
While Fox is seen as having relatively little influence in the country since leaving office, his statement sees him join a growing number of Latin American leaders who feel the drug trade needs to be brought overground and legitimised before it can be effectively tackled.
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