Mr. President, end this (drug) war!

Death toll in Mexico this last year: a stunning 12,000, according to WAPO.

Yes, some will write it off as only "professionals" dying, but the same is largely true in all conflicts.

We supply the money and the guns, and then demand that the Mexicans fight it out to the last man standing.

It's a wonder that all Mexicans don't hate us all the time.

Decriminalize drug use and you deny the cartels the big money that fuels their warfare.  You also stop US states from spending so much on jail time for small-time users and peddlers. You also medicalize our response, which is how the rest of the intelligent world deals with debilitating drug abuse.

End the drug war, Mr. President, and truly earn the Nobel, because that would take some political courage.

We can only hope that a second-term Obama, hemmed in domestically by a GOP House and Senate, will escape to some suitably radical foreign policy (back-dooring some sensible domestic policy changes). This would fit that scenario, but I have little hope of Obama making such a call.

Mexico talking decriminalization of pot

Economist story.

Felipe Calderon, president of Mexico, floating the idea that enough is enough.  His war on drugs (truly a war) has come at the cost of 28,000 lives in four years--with no let-up in sight.

We freak out, as a nation, over 4,000 troop deaths over twice the period, and we're three times the population of Mexico.  So fair to expect far more of a political freak-out on their side, which has remained really quite reasonable throughout.

So I guess I don't see why, as The Economist says, that "it came as a surprise when on August 3rd Mr. Calderon called for a debate on whether to legalise drugs."

If we had similar numbers of per-capita deaths, we'd be talking 84,000 deaths since 2006, or roughly 15 times what we've lost in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002.  If we were suffering such losses, dontcha think we'd be talking decriminalization a lot more than we are now.  Hell, even with our relatively marginal losses, 30 out of 50 US states have passed or are considering medical pot/decriminalization bills.  So why such a surprise that mellow Mexico calls for just a debate?

Calderon's predecessor, Vincente Fox, has already called for legalization in response.  If California soon votes to legalize and tax pot sales to adults, then expect Mexico to more ahead, I say.