Saturday, August 14, 2010

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox calls for the legalisation of drugs, in Holyrood, fear of losing MSP salary rules Scottish debate




















Dear All

For some considerable time, I have been calling for the legalisation of drugs in Scotland.

Why?

Because the drugs market must be bankrupted in order to wrestle control away from criminals.

At present, most Scottish politicians across the board fully support criminals by their phoney ‘war on drugs’ by default.

Now, the reality is dawning, former Mexican president Vicente Fox has called for the legalisation of drugs.

He rightly argues that prohibition has failed to curb rising drug-related violence and corruption.

And he also makes the clear point; legalisation did not mean that drugs are good.

New dynamic strategy is so badly needed.

The current Mexican president Felipe Calderon last week put his toe in the water by calling for a debate on legalisation but he took the politically safe route by saying he personally opposed the idea.

In politics, generally, you don’t want to upset the opposition and that is certainly the case in Scottish politics where fake ‘Victorian values’ rule.

The Mexican stance is understandable; more than 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence since Mr Calderon took office.

One thing politicians push while in public office and out of it is education, those who current take illegal drugs will continue to do so and yes others may try if legalised but revenue generated could be ring fenced to support programmes that educate people and provide activities to discourage others.

Fox said:

"We should consider legalising the production, sale and distribution of drugs.”

He also highlights my point that I have been making for sometime:

"But we have to see it as a strategy to weaken and break the economic system that allows cartels to make huge profits, which in turn increases their power and capacity to corrupt."

Fox recognises the need to bankrupt the criminal economic system.

Next year, there is an election in Scotland; the main parties will go on a version of ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’.

Unfortunately, they won’t be ‘smart on crime’ and now is the time to be so.

In Holyrood, fear of losing a £55k a year plus expenses rules, MSPs are the most costly sheep in Scotland.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

No comments: