Costa Rica and Guatemala Reject Marijuana Legalization

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Photo: Latin America News Dispatch
Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom and Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla during their anti-marijuana meeting Sunday.

​The presidents of Costa Rica and Guatemala on Sunday showed themselves to be good little obedient Drug Warriors, rejecting a recommendation from a committee of former Latin American presidents and other former world leaders to legalize marijuana in an effort to help stem the violence caused by organized crime in Central America.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla (yeah, that’s really her name, man) and her Guatemalan counterpart President Álvaro Colom met over the weekend in San Jose, reports Andrew OReilly at Latin America News Dispatchwhere they agreed to claim that last week’s proposal by the Commission on Global Drug Policy to decriminalize marijuana “would not work,” and would be just an ever-so-icky thing to boot.


Photo: The Jaco Blog
She looks good, but she’s dumb as fuck: Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla says everybody will get on heroin and cocaine if marijuana is legalized.

​”It seems very naive to say: legalize marijuana and the profits will fall,” Chinchilla cluelessly said during a press conference after receiving the Guatemalan president in her office.
Both presidents claimed that the United States and Europe “need to take more responsibility” in combating drug trafficking and in providing more financial support to Central America. Yeah, you knew that part was coming, didn’t you?
Chinchilla also claimed that if marijuana were legalized, the markets for harder substances such as cocaine and heroin would expand, thus clearly displaying her deep and utter cluelessness in subscribing to the outdated and discredited “Gateway Theory” of cannabis.
The Commission on Global Drug Policy, which includes former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, César Gaviria of Colombia and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, said during a press conference last Thursday that nations worldwide should explore the possibility of legalizing marijuana and creating treatment centers for hard drugs, similar to the ones already operating in Europe.
The committee added that the War On Drugs, based on filling prisons with drug traffickers and users, has utterly failed and that smarter alternatives are needed to address the problem.
“I think all presidents are tempted to legalize drugs so that once and for all we will be left in peace from all this violence, but do not think that is the right way,” Colom said, reports Costa Rica’s La Nación.
Colom also said that plans to combat drug trafficking have led to the displacement of criminal cartels into Central America, and increased crime and violence in the area. Why, exactly, he thinks that Drug War tactics are suddenly and magically going to start working was left unanswered.
Part of the meeting between Chinchilla and Colom was spent working on details for the Regional Security Conference which takes place later this month in Guatemala. Colom said the plan includes four programs: attacking drug trafficking operations, violence prevention, reintegrating drug users socially and “institutional strengthening.”
Surprise, surprise: Included will be a proposal for funding from “large drug-consuming countries like the U.S.” Trust me, folks: These high-and-mighty pronouncements always end that way.
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