>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <220a01bf1195$c9c9fb40$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Back to the future >Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 07:02:42 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >True in 1994; truer today. > >------- > >Copyright 1994 The New York Times Company > The New York Times > > February 27, 1994, Sunday, Late Edition - Final > > SECTION: Section 4; Page 15; Column 2; Editorial Desk > >The Useless War > >By Gabriel Garcia Marquez > >Five years after President George Bush intensified the war on drugs, >stepping up the campaign to cut them off at the source, Latin American >critics say that it is failing in almost every way -- that the war has not >staunched the flow of cocaine and marijuana to U.S. streets, that violence >caused by the drug cartels has taken too big a toll and that drug mafias >are richer than ever. Taking a radically new tack, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, >Colombia's Nobel Prize-winning novelist, has written a manifesto calling >for controlled worldwide legalization. First published in Spain, in Cambio >16 magazine, and translated here by Edith Grossman, the manifesto has been >signed in recent weeks by 2,000 Latin intellectuals -- from leftists who >believe that prohibition is not the best way to fight addiction to >rightists who argue that bullets can't break the laws of supply and demand. > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >Prohibition has made the drug trade more attractive and profitable, >encouraging criminality and corruption at all levels. And yet the United >States behaves as if it were not aware of this fact. Colombia, despite >limited resources and thousands of casualties, has eradicated numerous >gangs and filled its prisons with drug criminals. At least four of the most >important capos are behind bars, and the most important one of all is at >bay. > >In the United States, however, 20 million addicts have no problem obtaining >their daily supply, something that is possible only because of much larger >and more efficient internal networks for marketing and distribution. > >Given this situation, the drug polemic must not continue to be caught >between war and permissiveness, but should grab the bull by the horns at >last and focus on the various ways in which legalization can be >administered. > >This means putting an end to the self-seeking, pernicious, useless war that >the consuming countries have inflicted on us, and confronting the drug >problem throughout the world as a fundamental ethical and political >question that can be defined clearly only by an international agreement, >with the United States on the front lines. > >And, of course, with serious commitments by the consuming nations to the >producing nations.For although it is very probable, it surely would not be >just if those of us who suffered the terrible consequences of the war were >then left without the benefits of peace. > >In other words, if what happened to Nicaragua were to happen to us: the top >priority worldwide during the war, in peace has dropped to the bottom of >the list. > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: