American Drug Policy Is to Snort Other Countries up Our Nose
In Mexico, Faltering, Not Failed By Edward Schumacher-Matos Saturday, February 21, 2009; A13 BOSTON -- Mexico is not a failing state, as it has become fashionable to say. What has failed is our "war on drugs." That failure and the drug-related violence wracking Mexico suggest it is time to open a national discussion on legalizing drugs. About 6,600 Mexicans were killed in fighting involving drug gangs last year, and alarms are going off in this country. The U.S. Joint Forces Command, former drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey, former CIA director Michael V. Hayden, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and any number of analysts have speculated that Mexico is crumbling under pressure from drug gangs. But "failed state" is the sort of shorthand that Washington has a way of turning into its own reality, the facts be damned. . . .
American taxpayers currently spend about $21 billion on trying to reduce drug supplies and on domestic enforcement, according to the Office of National Drug Control Polic…