Food for thought: US equals Colombia in cannabis production

[Judi Lynn]

US equals Colombia in cannabis production

Submitted by WW4 Report on Sun, 07/19/2009 - 18:10. US production of marijuana now equals that of Colombia, according to the annual report of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The report finds that the US and Colombia each produced some 4,000 metric tons of cannabis last year. Morocco is the world leader at 44,000 metric tons, followed by Paraguay at 16,500 metric tons and Mexico at 15,800. Production in Mexico is down from 25,800 metric tons in 2007, when it occupied second place after Morocco. The Mexican government boasts of eradicating 18,652 hectares of marijuana in 2008. A much higher proportion of the US crop is indoor—an estimated 430,000 plants, compared to 6.6 million outdoor. (El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, July 17)

English-language accounts emphasized the more optimistic news from the UNODC report. Global production of coca hit a five-year low at 845 tons despite some increased cultivation in Peru and Bolivia. The estimated cost of the world's illicit drug market is about $320 billion, UNODC director Antonio Maria Costa told AP. "This makes drugs one of the most valuable commodities in the world. The proceeds of drug-related crime are of macro-economic proportions."

Roughly 167 million people use marijuana at least occasionally, the report found. (AP, June 24)

http://www.ww4report.com/node/7605

[Judi Lynn]

1. LTTE response to bogus Venezuela drug article in the Financial Times:

Venezuelan drug seizures on the rise
Published: July 20 2009 03:00 | Last updated: July 20 2009 03:00

From Mr Samuel Moncada.

Sir, In response to your report "Caracas under fire for failure in drugs war" (July 16): according to the 2009 World Drug Report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, cocaine seizures in Venezuela have actually increased after the suspension of co-operation schemes with the US Drug Enforcement Administration. While co-operating with the DEA, the Venezuelan yearly average amounted to only 27.1 tonnes, whereas after the suspension in 2005, it has always been beyond 30 tonnes a year.

Venezuela has a very positive record of international co-operation against drug trafficking. We have signed more than 50 agreements with countries in Europe, the Americas and Africa. More than 20 drug lords have been captured and deported to various countries, such as Belgium, Colombia, France, Italy and the US.

Venezuela's efforts against illegal drug trafficking have paid off and have been acknowledged by the international community. Manipulation of the issue by US politicians does not contribute to the improvement of relations between both countries. US leaders need to signal clearly that their main motivation is indeed the fight against illegal drug trafficking, not the destabilisation of the Venezuelan government.

Samuel Moncada,

Ambassador of Venezuela to the UK
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6ee97668-74c4-11de-8ad5-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F6ee97668-74c4-11de-8ad5-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=

[Peace Patriot]

2. What the U.S. really means is that Venezuela has rejected WAR PROFITEERING.

Neither Venezuela, nor Bolivia, nor other countries that reject the U.S. "war on drugs" are rejecting the fight against illegal or dangerous drugs or associated crime. But they don't call it a "war." And they don't turn it into a multi-billion dollar war industry for the profit of private contractors, chem corps and weapons corps, and the 'prison-industrial complex,' and they don't use it to militarize and nazify their societies and those of other countries, nor as an excuse to surveil and plot against other countries in the interest of global corporate predators, nor as a means of driving peasant farmers off their lands, with toxic pesticide spraying and other violence, so that monster Ag corps like Monsanto, big resource exploiters (mining, logging, oil) and the big drug lords, can move in.

That is why they are more successful at investigating and dismantling drug networks. They are sincere. They do not have ulterior motives. In fact, I believe that US agencies and the Bush Cartel have long profited from the drug trade and attendant crime (weapons trafficking, human trafficking, murder, bribery, 'protection'), as well as profiting from turning it into a war (looting US taxpayers of trillions of dollars for this failed, corrupt, murderous 'war').

Those opposed to the US "war on drugs" are also looking for progressive solutions to drug use and traffic. Bolivia, for instance, distinguishes between the coca leaf--a traditional indigenous medicine, used throughout the Andes as a nutritious leaf essential to survival in the high altitude, icy mountain climate (it is chewed, or brewed as tea)--and cocaine--a highly processed, manufactured substance that creates dangerous, unhealthy addiction, and fosters crime networks. Bolivia has legalized the coca leaf--but neither its coca leaf growers (small indigenous farmers) nor the Bolivian government approve of the manufacture and trafficking in cocaine. And Bolivia has been more effective at stopping the latter since they legalized the coca leaf and evicted the DEA from Bolivia.

There is also a movement among progressive leaders in Latin America to legalize marijuana--another highly nutritional plant that is a traditional medicine and grows everywhere. Those who oppose the US "war on drugs" are seeking a SANE drug policy that does not criminalize the use of innocent, beneficial plants that anyone can grow, and concentrates instead on the criminal networks that grow up around more dangerous and addictive substances like cocaine and heroine.

Latin American leaders are also addressing the heart and soul of the criminal drug trade issue--which is poverty! If people have jobs with decent pay and working conditions, health care, educational opportunities, food on the table, decent housing, dignity, outlets for creativity, intelligence, community and entrepreneurship, hope for a better future, and a voice in public affairs, they don't tend to become criminals. They are less tempted by the lure of easy, illegal riches, and feel more secure in resisting the pressures that might drag them into worse crimes associated with an illegal trade.

The leftist movement in Latin America--and the election of leftist governments throughout the region--has materially improved peoples' lives and given them hope. That is the most effective antidote to the criminal drug trade--not the failed, corrupt "war on drugs"--a highly toxic, extremely expensive disaster.

To my mind, the success of this SANE policy--as to cocaine seized, or criminals arrested--is not the primary issue. It is often evaluated that way, and that is the wrong way to evaluate it. Personally, I would decriminalize all drug use, and remove it entirely from the venue of law enforcement. It is strictly a health issue, in my opinion. The important thing is that this saner policy is more humane and much better for society. Thus, you don't fill your jails with people growing or trading in plants--beneficial herbs! You don't criminalize a huge segment of society. You leave people alone. You honor human liberty. You don't drag them into an often brutal, repressive system--prisons!--and destroy their lives. You don't create a nazi state that confiscates people's property--land, homes, vehicles, bank accounts--for growing and selling medicine.

If decriminalizing the coca leaf results in more cocaine interdiction--which in fact, it does (along with evicting the DEA--that is also helpful)--fine and good. Crime networks need to be dismantled. But crime networks are only a symptom. Poverty, disempowerment and inequality are the cause.

And THIS is Venezuela's crime, and Bolivia's crime, and Ecuador's crime--in the eyes of our war profiteers. They refuse to play this murderous, ruinous game any more--that more and more and more and more money into the pockets of war profiteers is going to solve the drug trade. It never will. It is not intended to. These countries are crying, "The emperor has no clothes on!" That is why our war profiteer establishment lies about them and demonizes them--that and their use of oil profits to benefit the poor--another unforgivable sin.