MPP Urges Discussion on Marijuana Prohibition at Secy. Clinton's Summit in Mexico Today

(MEXICO CITY) - Today, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading a cabinet-level delegation, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, to Mexico City for a two-day conference that will focus on ways the United States and Mexico can “break the power” of drug-trafficking organizations.

The talks come just one week after the execution-style killing of three people, including two American citizens and their unborn baby, linked to a U.S. Consulate in Mexico^[1].

Since Dec. 2006, there have been 18,000 killings in Mexico, with no end in sight. According to the Justice Department, Mexican cartels now operate in 230 American cities.

“Officials have already shown they are not serious about breaking the power of Mexican drug cartels, since they have refused to acknowledge the unrivaled role marijuana prohibition has played in lining the pockets of these murderous gangs who are now—by all indications—targeting Americans for assassination,” said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project.

“The only way to ‘break the power’ of these gangs is to regulate marijuana and remove it from the criminal market. According to our own government, the cartels make 70 percent of their profits from marijuana sales in the U.S. It is unconscionable that officials continue to support a policy that funnels billions of dollars to groups who are now murdering Americans.”

During a visit to Mexico City in March 2009, Secretary Clinton said the United States has a “co-responsibility” to confront Mexico’s growing violence because “our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.”

Former leaders of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have all called for an end to prohibition in order to stem the violence. In December 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that growing numbers of U.S. and Mexican officials say privately that regulating marijuana may be the only solution to the current crisis.

“No policy will ever extinguish the demand for marijuana,” Houston said. “Officials need to do the right thing by acknowledging prohibition’s role in this horrific carnage, and finally ending this failed policy.”

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Jeff Kaye~ March 23, 2010 1:42 pm (Pacific time)

Well, now that President Obama has accomplished what Billary could not... maybe he can finally address this critical issue -- through the one that wears the pants in that family -- Hillary. Former President Clinton says he's sorry he didn't do more to end prohibition, especially as it pertains to medicinal uses of this potent yet safe natural substance. What a crock. He was just as much in the pocket of lobbyists as every other politician elected president since Carter. Speaking of Carter, he was nearly laughed out of office for even suggesting we legalize marijuana. I guess we'll have to wait till the 18-month Webb commission report comes out, so the DEA can dismiss it as left-wing propaganda. It's all about money. Yet we're throwing away billions upon billions -- over a trillion dollars so far, actually -- to fight an unwinnable war on weed, which is actually a war on patients; those in need. Casual, recreational use is demonstrably medicinally beneficial as well; it relaxes millions of Americans after a stressful day's work, without the vicious hangover and potential liver damage associated with alcohol's effects. Users of cannabis sleep much better than regular alcohol consumers, that's a widely recognized and rigorously tested and studied fact.

If this administration doesn't start addressing the problems created and perpetuated by the illegality of a plant, with scientific and common-sense approaches from a public health and/or a national security standpoint, Obama will be a one-term president. And having turned his back on millions of supporters who thought he was on their side of this war, he will deserve the landslide loss. On the other hand, should he wise up and take his own advice: "The war on drugs has been an utter failure... We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws", why then, he would be re-elected easily for having kept his word, albeit a bit late in the game. I guess he just didn't want to be known only for advancing marijuana reform. Well, now he's got health care reform under his belt. It's time to follow that up with some naturapathic health care reform -- in the form of the repeal of this nation's heinous seven decade-plus prohibition of the safest therapeutically active substance known to medicine.

Daniel Johnson March 23, 2010 1:50 pm (Pacific time)

What a picture of Hilary. She looks like she is sitting on something sharp.

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