Saturday, March 6, 2010

Jim Schultz talks common sense on Bolivia, coca, cocaine and drugs

A recommended post right here, as Jim Schultz of The Democracy Center, Cochabamba Bolivia, looks at the recently published US State Dept narcotics annual report, zooms in on the samo samo written about Bolivia, notes the samo samo used as counterpoint by Evo&Co and then cuts to the chase. His six points of "things experts on all sides really know but daren't say in public" are spot on. Here's the 6th of the six as a sample:

6. If the U.S. is genuinely serious about its drug problem then it should stop a decades-old show called the War on Drugs, and adopt a series of public policies that nearly every serious analyst knows is the most effective course, including: free drug treatment for those addicted the moment they ask for it (because that's when it has a shot at working); treating addiction as a disease instead of a criminal offense; and sucking billions of dollars out of the hands of criminal syndicates and into the coffers of public treasuries by legalizing marijuana, regulating it, and taxing it.

Go read the whole thing on this link.