|
 Simplepowa
Socially Awkward
Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 3,141
Loc: Canada 
|
 Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba  2
#16093119 - 04/15/12 12:35 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Colombian president calls for discussion on decriminalizing drugs
Canada and the United States are finding themselves at odds with Latin American countries on two thorny issues — the war on drugs and the exclusion of Cuba — at a summit of hemispheric leaders in Colombia.
The event's host, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, delivered a frank speech Saturday to the assembled heads of state and government in which he said it would be "unacceptable" to hold another Summit of the Americas without Cuba. The communist country was suspended from the Organization of American States, the main organizing body for the summits, in 1962.
Canada and the United States are the only two countries in the organization that have not lobbied to invite to Cuba to the events.
"The isolation, the embargo, the indifference, the looking the other way don't work," Santos said in the coastal resort city of Cartagena. "It's an anachronism that keeps us anchored in a Cold War era that was overcome decades ago."
Three Latin American leaders are threatening not to sign Sunday's summit declaration unless Canada and the United States agree to allow Cuba to attend the next one, the CBC's Terry Milewski reported from the summit.
Divided over drugs
The Colombian president also said that the war on drugs isn't working and that he would like to see a debate on decriminalizing them.
Violence related to the drug trade has pushed murder rates in Central America and the Caribbean to the highest in the world.
But Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office has said he won't entertain any policy changes that would lift the prohibition of illicit drugs, while U.S. President Barack Obama repeated at the summit on Saturday that the White House believes "legalization is not the answer."
Saturday's focus on Cuba and drug enforcement policy clashed with Harper's agenda at the summit, which was to sell Canada as an attractive destination to do business.
The prime minister went looking for investment dollars from across the region during a speech Saturday to assembled leaders, where he boasted of Canada's economic stability and strong resource industry.
Harper also told a forum of CEOs his government's budget promises to speed up the regulatory process to develop major natural resource projects is a key reason they should invest.
"We cannot allow valid concerns about environmental protection to be used as an excuse to trap worthwhile projects in reviews without end," Harper said. "What matters is that the relevant facts are fully considered. That need not take years."
Harper further touted Canada’s banks as "the soundest in the world" according to the World Economic Forum.
Canadian exports have been flagging over the past several years, and Canadian manufacturing has felt the blow with an estimated 500,000 lost jobs. At the same time, South American countries have seen strong economic growth and are an appealing destination for potential trade and investment.
Latin American leaders have been working to take advantage, having recently founded the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, which includes all of the hemisphere's countries except Canada and the United States.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/14/harper-summit-americas.html
--------------------
If you can't control drugs in a maximum security prison, then how can you control drugs in a free society?
---
If it's true that there was a Big Bang, everything that each of us are was once contained in that needle tip of highly condensed matter. Over time, the Universe grew in ways which enabled it to see and understand itself. We are the universe looking back at itself.
|
 xaeviax
Wayward Son of Man
Registered: 03/18/06
Posts: 883
Loc: 
Last seen: 8 days, 8 hours
|
Re: Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba [Re: Simplepowa]
#16093167 - 04/15/12 12:49 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Simplepowa said:
The Colombian president also said that the war on drugs isn't working and that he would like to see a debate on decriminalizing them.
...while U.S. President Barack Obama repeated at the summit on Saturday that the White House believes "legalization is not the answer."
Decriminalization and legalization are not the same thing!
--------------------
  
I am a faker. Pretending along.
|
Nature Boy
Stranger than most
Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 4,648
Loc: Samsara
Last seen: 3 hours, 52 minutes
|
Re: Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba [Re: Simplepowa]
#16093249 - 04/15/12 01:22 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Nice going, North America. Exactly as predicted. Completely closed to any (not so) new idea. 
FWIW, I am all for decriminalization - 100%. Legalization (different concept as has been properly pointed out) might naturally follow when the extra experience gained by society shows no long-term harm from most all these substances any greater than that of alcohol or tobacco.
N.B.
--------------------
All submitted posts are by Someone Who Isn't Me (SWIM) - and in any event are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I no longer answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend, so don't bother. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread...no exceptions. Anyone with less than 1,000 posts is automatically assumed to be a cop.
 
|
AcidStrippedMind
The Sunshine Fix
Registered: 02/03/11
Posts: 1,092
Loc: NoVa USA
|
Re: Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba [Re: Nature Boy]
#16093525 - 04/15/12 03:09 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
I'm all for both, but yeah if we actually have a shot at anything, it would be decriminalization first.
..while U.S. President Barack Obama repeated at the summit on Saturday that the White House believes "legalization is not the answer."
Then please tell us all what is the answer? Oh I know, just lock up more and more people until everyone just gives up?
--------------------
It's the inside joke everybody's in on
|
bloodsheen
ChemChaplin
Registered: 09/24/08
Posts: 2,664
Last seen: 7 hours, 25 minutes
|
Re: Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba [Re: AcidStrippedMind]
#16096371 - 04/16/12 07:06 AM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
I think the US government is sort of in a "La la la la I'm not listening" phase right now. I think they know deep down that eventually something drastic is going to have to be done, but with all the economic problems right now its just not on their shit list.
Also don't forget that the US is a paternalistic piece of crap who knows that nobody is ever gonna mess with them so they just do what they want. It'll be decades most likely but I think a shift toward this will happen regardless of national policy. States and shit will just stop voting to fund the war on drugs and it will be essentially decriminalized
--------------------
A cautious young fellow named Lodge / Had seat belts installed in his Dodge. / When his date was strapped in / He committed a sin / Without even leaving the garage. That's clever, isn't it?-A boy and his dog
|
Enlil
LIL-9000
Registered: 08/16/03
Posts: 11,429
|
Re: Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba [Re: bloodsheen]
#16096393 - 04/16/12 07:17 AM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
That's some bad writing...how can you "single out" two nations?
--------------------
Ask a defense attorney
Fuck the Amish
Rail_Gun said, "And those kids in CT deserved to die and I'm glad they're dead. I am glad that the survivors will have to "live with it" too. hahaha"
Listerine said, "i want genocide for most of africa"
|
Dystopia
unit - [s2dope] - v1.0.13
Registered: 03/24/00
Posts: 15,252
Loc: Danger Zone
|
Re: Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba [Re: Enlil]
#16100795 - 04/17/12 07:31 AM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Fuck it who cares, they all just told America to go fuck themselves.
Now AmeriCanada looks like bigger idiots, and will look terrible when this works.
Hopefully then they will follow suit.
|
durian_2008
cornucopian eating an elephant
Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 2,497
Last seen: 1 day, 10 hours
|
Re: Canada and U.S. singled out at summit over drugs, Cuba [Re: xaeviax]
#16116466 - 04/20/12 04:16 PM (1 year, 1 month ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Simplepowa said:
The Colombian president also said that the war on drugs isn't working and that he would like to see a debate on decriminalizing them.
...while U.S. President Barack Obama repeated at the summit on Saturday that the White House believes "legalization is not the answer."
Quote:
xaeviax said:
Decriminalization and legalization are not the same thing!
|
|
Images only 
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Edit 
Reply 
