El economista del Independent Institute, Robert Higgs, fue recientemente galardonado con un doctorado honorífico por la Universidad Francisco Marroquín de Guatemala, donde concedió algunas entrevistas tanto a medios locales como a New Media UFM, además de dar el discurso del Acto de Graduación 2011.

Sorprendentemente (al menos para mí) las entrevistas versaron sobre la Guerra contra las Drogas que lidera Estados Unidos desde hace unas décadas. Por ello decidí entrevistarle para Libre Mercado. El resultado: Robert Higgs: “La guerra contra las drogas sólo beneficia a narcotraficantes y gobiernos”.

Enlazo también a un artículo de dos de los firmantes del reciente informe de la Global Commision on Drug Policy que ha dictaminado el fracado del enfoque actual de la guerra contra las drogas. Me ha parecido muy sensato y equilibrado. Se trata de poner sobre la mesa los costes de las actuales políticas, y abrir un debate sobre el camino a seguir a partir de ahora examinando diferentes alternativas.

We do not support the simple legalization of all drugs. What we do advocate is an open and honest debate on the subject. We want to find our way to a less costly and more effective method of discouraging drug use, cutting down the power of organized crime, providing better treatment and minimizing negative societal effects.

Other countries that have tried different approaches include Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal and Australia. What can we learn from these varied experiences, some more successful than others?

The situation that confronts us today is dangerous. After 40 years of concentrating on one approach that has been unsuccessful, we should be willing to take a look at other ways of working to solve this pressing problem. As the global commission concludes: “Break the taboo on debate and reform. The time for action is now.”

La experiencia de Portugal es interesante en este sentido. Como muestra esta noticia de 2009, diferentes fuentes señalan que la despenalización del consumo de drogas funcionó bastante bien: se redujo el número de muertes asociadas a ello, y Lisboa no se convirtió en la capital del consumo de droga. No obstante, se mantuvieron las penas para los traficantes.

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem—it decriminalized the use and possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory: focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006

“Now instead of being put into prison, addicts are going to treatment centers and they’re learning how to control their drug usage or getting off drugs entirely,” report author Glenn Greenwald, a former New York State constitutional litigator, said during a press briefing at Cato last week.