Guatemalan President Urges Countries To Overhaul Drug Policy In UN Speech

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina spoke out against the failed drug war and urged nations to experiment with new drug policy in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week.

Pérez Molina praised Washington and Colorado for legalizing cannabis, President Obama for allowing the implementation of these laws, and President José Mujica of Uruguay for his cannabis legalization proposal.

Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states – and the first political jurisdictions in the world – to legalize cannabis for adults last November. Uruguay is not far behind – the country’s House passed a cannabis legalization bill in July and its Senate is expected to follow suit in October.

“You know global drug policy is changing when the president of a Latin American country plagued by drug trafficking violence praises US initiatives to legalize marijuana,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “It feels like sanity and rationality are at last penetrating the highest levels of governments throughout the Americas.”

Drug policy reform has been a major focus at the UN General Assembly this last week, with heads of state such as President Santos of Colombia calling for significant worldwide drug policy reform.