On June 6, during the 43rd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), held in Guatemala, the “Declaration of Antigua” was proclaimed. The document encouraged nations of the American continent to study, based on their particular legislations, the guidelines of the “Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas”. In the aforementioned paper, presented by OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza on May this year, the organization acknowledges that the hemispheric debate regarding illegal drugs is already presenting “a disposition to experience a non-traditional approach”, that is to say, one different from prohibition. This continues the initiatives of decriminalization and drug trafficking regulation issued by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, chaired by former Latin American Presidents, Cardoso (Brazil), Gaviria (Colombia) and Zedillo (Mexico). That way, the alleged failure of a global war against drugs as well as the need for a paradigm shift on the matter are growing stronger.
Until recent times, the prohibition policy had monopolized the issue. With the exception of a few countries where selective regularization was established (the Netherlands, for instance), its medical or religious use allowed or had the use of a very low quantity decriminalized – such is the case of Mexico -, the prevalent keynote has been the resistance of governments to modify its stance. Generally, the change in government policies has been slow. In spite of that, the number of persons that are in favor of experimenting with alternative is growing stronger. In the Americas initiatives such as the recent decriminalization of consume and trade of marijuana for recreational use, as well as the U.S. states such as Colorado and Washington. On the same venue, on June 8, France gave green light to the regulated use of marijuana for medical use.
Regarding the regional decriminalization of marijuana in the USA it is important to wonder what are the consequences and short and medium term challenges for Mexico. First of all, a different policy from its neighbor, puts at serious risk the policy of the Mexican government on drug issues, whose operations have cost billion of pesos. The lack of coordination in timing of a shift in prohibition can generate collateral conflicts resulting from the adjustments on illegal markets and criminality linked with drug trafficking. The latter may choose to diversify crime, since its operative logic is not in terms of “poisoning society” rather than, simply, having a quick and easy source of money, with any activity that might offer that opportunity. In the meantime, at Antigua, the official Mexican stance remains reluctant to an eventual legalization of marijuana.
Even though the Antigua assembly didn’t outline concrete actions to perform an important change of direction towards a paradigm shift, the fact of acknowledging the need to study alternative choices to the drug phenomenon (and not finding such an eager opposition in the U.S. delegation) is a major step ahead. Looking at the immediate future, the main elements of the debate will remain, such as the moral issue and the prejudices against the use of drugs, whose effect is not only weakening but is distracting the attention from the essential problem of consume: the seriousness of it as a public health issue – not to mention, of course, its implications with the growing violence.
Perhaps what is most important about the meeting in Guatemala is the lack of realism regarding the violence problems that are affecting the zone. Even though there are great arguments for the legalization of some drugs, there wasn’t a single one that dealt with developing modern police or justice systems whose absence is, in the end, the main problem of countries in Central America as well as Mexico. In just a few words, the issue is not trafficking but the absence of the State. Even though the legalization of some drugs (marijuana is the only one proposed to be regulated, not its most profitable product, which is cocaine) could potentially reduce the resources that drug organizations use, only a strong State that is able to keep the rule of law will change the violent reality of these nations.
CIDAC
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