"Remember in early August of this year when Mexican president Felipe Calderon waffled on whether or not he wanted his country to legalize drugs? He said he was open to a debate, but that a debate in Mexico would change nothing if the underground cannabis market in the United States persisted.
In the weeks between August and early September, many official types in Mexico and the United States have inveighed against legalization. Mexico's first lady, Maragarita Zavala, absent and then present at events with the US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowski in Mexico City, and even Barack Obama from the White House, each have rejected legalization in Mexico or elsewhere as a panacea, especially for drug war violence. Notwithstanding an approach of binational official denial, legalization efforts have a history in the United States: going back to 1970 US voters have voted on legalization in several states west of the Rockies. But in terms of international diplomacy or even international relations legalization hasn't entered the lexicon, or politics, of Mexico-US relations. Not even former president Vicente Fox -- a pragmatic legalizer of all drugs, especially cannabis -- could shift the official positions of Mexico City and Washington, DC."
