I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The message from Latin America Wednesday was that the U.S.-led “war on drugs” is a failure, and a new approach needs to be found.
The Wall Street Journal reports that in a conference call with reporters, three former Latin American heads of state said the war on drugs needs to be re-evaluated.
“The available evidence indicates that the war on drugs is a failed war,” said former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro. “We have to move from this approach to another one.”
Joining Cardoso were former Presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia in issuing a report from the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. The Journal noted that the three are political conservatives “… who have confronted in their home countries the violence and corruption that accompany drug trafficking.”
The presidents urged President Obama to decriminalize marijuana and to treat drug abuse as a health issue rather than a crime.
The Brookings Institution, the WSJ said, had recently found that the supply of drugs is flowing to the United States from Latin America despite interdiction and eradication efforts, and that the consumption of drugs within the United States had not been decreased by punitive efforts.
Bloomberg reported that Gaviria laid partial responsibility for the drug-related violence wracking Mexico at the feet of the United States:
Gaviria said Mexican President Felipe Calderon should demand Obama do more to reduce drug consumption. The U.S. pledged $400 million and increased cooperation with Mexico last year as part of an anti-drug plan known as the Merida Initiative.
More than 5,300 people were killed in drug-related violence in Mexico last year, and Mexican lawmakers have said the U.S. holds some responsibility for the bloodshed because demand for narcotics has made the cartels powerful.
