The Mexican government was just as quick to criticise the report's recommendations. According to National Security spokesman, Alejandro Poire, "legalisation won't stop organised crime, nor its rivalries and violence". But this ignores the fact that legalisation would starve drugs gangs of the bulk of their revenue. Neither the US nor Mexico is prepared to acknowledge the examples in the report, from studies in the Netherlands and Portugal, which show how a harm reduction approach has been successful. This refusal to engage with the arguments against prohibition, this blindness to empirical data which supports alternative policies, is exactly what has characterised global drugs policy for decades.
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