U.N.'s head of anti-drug trafficking warns against legalization

"In the Americas, the biggest threat to public safety comes from drug trafficking and the violence perpetuated by organized crime," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) speaking in Mexico City yesterday.

"Urban violence in the U.S., biker gangs in Canada, violence and kidnapping in Mexico, pandillas and maras in Central America, thugs in the Caribbean, gangs in Brazilian shanty towns, insurgency in Colombia -- in every case there is a connection to drugs," Costa said.

He urged governments not to be tempted to legalize drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, saying: "At this point, we know what some people -- the pro-drug lobby, for example -- would say:  'Legalize drugs and crime will disappear.' In other words, while facing an undeniably tough problem, we are invited to accept it, hide our head in the sand and make it legal. 

"I do not agree, and let me explain why by using an analogy. Human trafficking is another tough crime problem, worldwide -- perhaps second in size, after drug trafficking. Should we legalize modern slavery, given the intrinsic difficulty in dealing with it? Of course not."

Instead, he called for more to be done across the hemisphere to tackle the problem from the demand and supply end, working more towards reducing the cultivation, processing and trafficking of drugs.

He added: "Until the number of cocaine users falls worldwide, the problems caused by narco-trafficking will be displaced (as we are now seeing in West Africa) rather than solved. Therefore, more attention and resources must be devoted to drug prevention and treatment. Demand and supply reduction measures will inevitably contain the trafficking problem and the crimes associated to it."

Mexico is currently in the grip of surging levels of drug-related violence. President Felipe Calderon has sent 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police officers to secure large swaths of the country against its powerful drug cartels. In the nearly two years since Calderon launched a crackdown against drug gangs, more than 4,000 people have died.

Read the full speech by Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), here.

Read more about Mexico's drug war here at our "Mexico Under Siege" page.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Mexico's military during last year's Independence Day celebrations. Credit: Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Paul Pot]

Look at all the posts here that support an end to prohibition. And when we do end it, lets put all the prohibitionists on trial for 'Crimes Against Humanity'.

[mike]

alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana, there is no comparison

[newageblues]

Legalize, regulate, and tax commercial sale, starting with marijuana. The spread of medical marijuana is making clear how badly drug war jihadists have slandered marijuana and marijuana users.
Folks, starting with this UN guy, need to think clearly about the distinction between problems caused by drugs and problems caused by the war on drugs. It's outrageous the way drug warriors get away with blaming problems caused by the war on drugs on the drugs themselves. Even people who support the war on drugs or the war on hard drugs should be willing to admit there is a tremendous downside to the attempt to suppress (selected) drug use.

[av2ts]

I have to give some credit to Calderon for trying to legalize small amounts of drugs. With limited resources, you have to concentrate on dealers and cartels. If anything, the US heavy drug laws of the past 20 years have had negligible effects of drug use. Similarly the latest Mexican crackdown in the last year has only increased violence and not stopped the flow at all.

Last time Mexico (Fox) tried to decriminalize small amounts of drugs, Bush applied pressure and Fox was forced to veto his own Bill. For sure, the pressure is going to be applied again, using every forum possible. But Mexico strongly believes the US is in no position to talk, given its role as the main drugs consumer and in selling (90% of the) guns used in Mexican drug crime. This is a decision each country - or State - should be able to make on its own.

[lisa snow]

If Cannabis was legalized, it would wipe out the bulk of the illegal market and free up space in jails and allow reductions in law enforcement -- oops.

Did you know that the prison workers union is the largest union in the US? Can you guess what unions donate large sums of money toward keeping cannabis illegal?

Cannabis Prohibition was started in the US by a Alcohol Prohibition agent who was recently out of an enforcement job. He needed Prohibition to continue in order to stay employed. The US then pushed its agenda on the rest of the civilized world. All because of the alcohol temperance movement...which was based on religion...

How many wars have been fought over, or funded by the US's religious right's hegemony?

[Jake]

This man is one of the ones responsible for filling our prisons and graveyards (and Mexico's too). He needs to shut up, legalize and regulate.

[Sean K]

Let me explain why Mr. Costa's analogy is garbage. If we legalize kidnapping, we are legalizing an activity that is not only violent and specifically targets a victim other than one's self, it is an activity whose moral baseness IS NOT EVEN CONTROVERSIAL. Mr. Costa's logic is childishly unsound. Clearly, a more apt analogy is the rampant criminality that coincided with alcohol prohibition. Mr. Costa's views here strikingly parallel those of the tea-totaling know-it-all moralists of the time. This guy is a dangerous simpleton.

[Gary Noel]

The way to solve the drug problem is to legalize Marijuana. The other drugs hide behind the lies told about pot. The reality is that pot was made illegal because it competed with the huge investment DuPont made in facilities to make nylon and other items from petroleum. It was never about intoxication. Then Nixon made it a centerpiece of the war on drugs as a way to deal with the "God damn hippies." There will not be an end to the violence and social disruption caused by truly harmful drugs, unless we admit that pot prohibition is politically motivated as a weapon in the culture wars.

[George Not Bush]

Keeping drugs illegal is a massive price support program for criminal gangs. Then there's all the money spent on law enforcement, courts and prisons.

If we can live with legal alcohol and nicotine, we can live with other drugs being legal.

[Tony]

His opinion doesn't have anything to do with the fact that his job depends on the continuation of the "War on Drugs", right?

So he defends a failed policy that has diverted billions of dollars from more important needs...

If we didn't learn anything from alcohol prohibition and its failure, we are doomed to a never-ending cycle of violent crime and incarceration. Thanks Antonio!

[blah blah]

yeah because getting high similar to human trafficking. great analogy... not