Dennie Quill, Columnist
When I wrote last week’s column about the growing commercial importance of marijuana in America, I sort of anticipated that Oregon, Colorado and Washington would have voted to legalise recreational use by adults. The results are in: Indeed, Colorado and Washington voted ‘yes’.
So could this vote signal a turning point in America’s 40-year war on drugs? At least four leaders of ganja-producing countries in the region believe it definitely will.
The leaders of Mexico, Honduras, Belize and Costa Rica held a press conference in Mexico City on Monday in reaction to the yes vote in Colorado and Washington. They want the Organisation of American States (OAS) to consider the implication of the vote, and also called on the UN General Assembly to convene a special session on drug prohibition by 2015.
Note, please, that Belize is a CARICOM nation, and while it has stepped up to the microphone with friends in the region, its sister nations have kept very quiet on these developments in the United States.
Then United States President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1971, spending billions on the effort and creating new elite narcotics agencies to carry on the fight. But despite this, five years later, then Governor Jimmy Carter campaigned for the presidency on a platform of decriminalising marijuana and easing criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Of course, Carter won the election in 1976 and took office in January 1977.
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