Oliver Stone: Mexican Economy Needs War on Drugs Meredith Blake - Los Angeles Times
go to original July 3, 2012

On Monday night, the always-opinionated director Oliver Stone paid a visit to “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote his latest film, “Savages,” which tells the story of two pot-growing Southern California friends who clash with a Mexican drug cartel.

Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to the subject of the war on drugs, which Stone opposes. “Fifty percent of our prison system is victimless crimes,” he claimed. “People who’ve never hurt anybody, they’re in for marijuana and it has nothing to do with punishment. It’s a medical issue, and I think we have to move to decriminalization and legalization.”

But Stone also argued that, because of the vast scale of the war on drugs, decriminalization would present a massive systemic threat, especially south of the border: “The Mexican economy would die without it because they need the money. It goes into their legitimate economy. It’s bigger than tourism. It’s bigger than oil. It’s bigger than remissions from their Mexican emigrants back to their country.”

Admitting that it could not happen "overnight," Stone reiterated the need for decriminalization, arguing that "in America we’re suffering greatly" because the war on drugs diverts funds that could be used more productively elsewhere.

"We need to make a war for our country’s infrastructure," he said.

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