A CONTRAST IN LEADERSHIP

Why the War on Drugs is being won in Southeast Asia

BarkGrowlBite | November 5, 2016

President Joko Widodo has all drug dealers in Indonesia executed.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has all drug dealers in Malaysia executed.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has all drug dealers in Singapore executed.

President Rodrigo Duterte has had his police kill more than 2,500 drug dealers and users in the Philippines since he took office on June 30 this year.

By contrast, U.S. President Barack Obama has commuted the prison sentences of more than 800 drug dealers.

The Southeast Asian leaders make no distinction between marijuana and heroin, punishing the use and sales of pot as harshly as the use and sales of heroin. They recognize marijuana as a very dangerous substance because it is the Gateway Drug to the use of heroin and other addictive drugs.

By contrast, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia have legalized the recreational use of marijuana and on Tuesday the voters of California, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine will decide whether to legalize recreational pot as well. The legalization by states flies in the face of federal law which makes it a crime to manufacture, distribute, sell and use marijuana.

While the Southeast Asian leaders would never let any of their provinces legalize marijuana, former Attorney General Eric Holder, under the direction of President Obama, ordered the DEA not to enforce the federal laws against marijuana in those states where pot had been legalized.

There would be no ballot measures Tuesday on the legalization of pot had the DEA enforced the federal laws against marijuana in those states which first legalized it.

In the War on Drugs, the contrast in leadership between the heads of state in Southeast Asia and the president of the U.S. could not be more glaring.