Former Mexican President Fox: US Should Legalize Drugs

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said at a Washington, D.C., conference that the United States should follow Mexico’s lead and legalize all drugs, beginning with marijuana, reports CNSNews.com.

“It will separate health from crime. It would benefit Mexico enormously at this moment when we are in deep problems — so it’s to the benefit of everybody,” Fox told an audience at an event sponsored by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute.

Mexico, which has seen 40,000 deaths related to its continually escalating drug war since current President Felipe Calderón started a campaign against the cartels, has decriminalized possession and use of all drugs, while production and distribution remain illegal. Fox supports further decriminalization in Mexico of production, sales, “and the collecting of the money.”

The U.S. Department of Justice’s 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment addresses the continuing flow of drugs from south of the border and the threat of the “transnational criminal organizations” (TCOs) that control much of it.

“Major Mexican-based TCOs continue to solidify their dominance over the wholesale illicit drug trade [in the U.S.] as they control the movement of most of the foreign-produced drug supply across the U.S. Southwest Border,” reads the report.

“Major Mexican-based TCOs will continue to dominate wholesale drug trafficking in the United States for the foreseeable future and will further solidify their positions through collaboration with U.S. gangs.”