Latin America's Left and Right Need to Open Their Eyes to End the War on Drugs Fernando Grostein Andrade - The Huffington Post
go to original December 9, 2013

Quebrando o Tabu - Trailer (Marcha pela Liberdade)

Liberals and conservatives across the Americas are addicted to the war on drugs. Most leaders across the political spectrum privilege hard-line policies over harm reduction. And while some enlightened politicians and civic activists in the US are waking-up to the potential social and economic dividends of decriminalization and legalization of marijuana, Latin America's political elite are dragging their heels.

For a generation Latin America's left wingers have defended the rights of workers and the poor. They have led massive social justice movements and fought for progressive policies to benefit the disenfranchised. And yet a majority of those on the left have yet to acknowledge that one of the most significant injustices is the half-century old war on drugs. Literally millions of people, most of them poor and black, have been killed, injured, displaced and impoverished by repressive drug policies.

It is no secret that drug policy is predisposed against poor people of color. As former US President Jimmy Carter made clear in my film Quebrando o Tabu (Breaking the Taboo): "there is clear proof of racism in laws regulating the use of narcotics." One does not have to go further than a prison in any country in the region to see his point. For example, in the US, over 10 per cent of the population is African-American, yet they make up roughly 40 per cent of the almost 2.1 million male inmates.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

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