President joins calls for debate after figures reveal extent of violence since launch of military offensive against cartels in 2006

Jo Tuckman

Murders in Mexico's drug wars are becoming increasingly gruesome. Photograph: AP

Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón, has joined calls for a debate on the legalisation of drugs as new figures show thousands of Mexicans every year being slaughtered in cartel wars.

"It is a fundamental debate," the president said, belying his traditional reluctance to accept any questioning of the military-focused offensive
against the country's drug cartels that he launched in late 2006. "You
have to analyse carefully the pros and cons and key arguments on both
sides." The president said he personally opposes the idea of
legalisation.

Calderón's new openness comes amid tremendous pressure to justify a strategy that has been accompanied by the spiralling of horrific violence around the country as the cartels fight
each other and the government crack down. Official figures released this
week put the number of drug war related murders at 28,000.

Until recently the government regularly played down the general impact of the violence by claiming that 90% of the victims were associated with the
cartels, with the remainder largely from the security forces. In recent
months it has started to acknowledge a growing number of "civilian
victims" ranging from toddlers caught in the cross fire to students
massacred at parties.

Momentum behind the idea that legalisation could be part of the solution has been growing since three prominent former Latin American presidents signed a document last year arguing the
case.

César Gaviria of Colombia, Fernando Cardoso of Brazil and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico urged existing governments to consider legalising marijuana as a way of slashing cartel profits.

This year Mexico's national congress began a debate on the possibility that resurfaced again this week during a series of round table discussions
between the Calderón, security experts, business leaders and civic
groups.

The "Dialogue for Security: Evaluation and Strengthening" is part of a new government effort to counter the growing perception in Mexico that the president's drug war strategy is a disaster.

"I'm not talking just about legalizing marijuana," analyst and write Hector Aguilar Camin said during the Tuesday session, "rather all drugs in
general."

After accepting the need to directly address the proposal, Calderón made it clear he did not support it. "It requires a country to take a decision to put several generations of young people at
risk," he said, citing a likely increase in consumption triggered by
lower prices, greater availability and social acceptability.

He added that the predicted "important economic effects by reducing income for criminal groups" would be limited by the integration of Mexican drug
trafficking into international markets where drugs remain largely
underground.

Calderón did not mention current moves to soften drug laws in the US, including a planned vote in California in November on an initiative that would allow marijuana to be sold and taxed. Nor did
he address the home grown argument that legalisation would remove the
roots of the violence raging in the country.

"Legalisation would render the war pointless as drugs would become just another product like tobacco or alcohol," Jorge Castañeda, a legalisation advocate and
former foreign minister, told W Radio. He added that even if it did
prompt an increase in drug use. "It is worth considering whether this is
preferable to having 28,000 deaths."

The new death toll, which was not broken down, is significantly higher than the informal counts kept by newspapers. Milenio newspaper put the number of drug-related
deaths in July at 1,234.

Some leading critics of Calderón's strategy, however, do not believe legalisation is the key to reining in the cartels and the violence, preferring to emphasize the need to
increase efforts to go after money laundering and political corruption.

Edgardo Buscaglia, and expert in organised crime around the world, argues that the recent diversification of the Mexican cartels into other criminal
activities ranging from systematic extortion to people trafficking would
give them ample reason to keep fighting each other, even if drugs were
legal. "Legalising drugs would be good public policy," he said, "but it
would not be a tool with which to combat organized crime."

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