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Mexico's ex-president backs US pot drive

NineMSN

Friday 31 May 2013

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox has thrown his weight behind a US entrepreneur's drive to build a nationwide legal market for marijuana in the United States.

Fox, Mexico's leader from 200-2006, appeared at a Seattle press conference where businessman Jamen Shively said the US states of Washington and Colorado are spearheading a move to tear down the "Berlin Wall" of pot criminalisation.

"In Mexico we welcome this initiative, because the cost of the war in the case of Mexico is becoming unbearable," said Fox, referring to deadly drug violence which has ravaged America's southern neighbour.

The cost was "too high for Mexico, Latin America, and the rest of the world - the impact on the economy, on income, on tourism, investment but also talent .. and 80,000 kids' death in the last six years," he said.

"All this because our neighbour to the north represents such a gigantic consumer market. We must get out of this trap, and here is the opportunity," he added.

Drug-linked violence exploded in Mexico after Fox's successor Felipe Calderon deployed 50,000 troops to fight the cartels from 2006. More than 70,000 people died in the drug war during the Calderon administration.

His successor Enrique Pena Nieto announced the creation of a new national police force to fight crime and the cartels.

Shively, a former Microsoft executive is head of Diego Pellicer Inc, which describes itself as "the first retail brand in the United States focused exclusively on legal, premium marijuana for pleasure and creative pursuits".

On Thursday, he laid out his case for a nationwide market for pot, following its decriminalisation in the western states of Colorado and Washington.

"By making cannabis illegal we have... turned it into a tool for violence, exploited by criminals and organised crime, spanning many countries," Shively told reporters.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a unique moment in history. The Berlin Wall of the prohibition of cannabis... is weak, and it is crumbling as we speak," he said.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2013/05/31/17/40/mexico-s-ex-president-backs-us-pot-drive

 

 

 

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