Okay, maybe I was a LITTLE harsh.

I was reading today that Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales has said that he will in fact try to linit cocaine production (so obviously he's not thinking of legalizing cocaine). His policy is to crack down on drug manufacturers, but not coca farmers, or as he puts it "zero cocaine and zero drug trafficking, but not zero coca or zero cocaleros (coca farmers)." He also says that he ready, in principle, to work with the US to stop drug production.

So, maybe I was a little harsh, but I'm still no fan of Evo Morales. I don't think that socialism do Bolivia (or any other country) any good. In fact, it will probably cause greater poverty in a country that is already the poorest in South America. Socialism claims to make every one equal, but this is not the reality. Socialist weath-redistribution schemes have backfired in Eastern Europe, Africa, and many other areas. There is not enough money in any goverment's coffers to make every poor man richer, but the aim of Socialism is ensure that nobody is any better off than anyone else. Hence, Socialists enforce monetary equality the only way they can, by making sure that everyone becomes poor (so everyone starves, but the government can feel good about itself because they are all starving equally).

I also still think that, no matter how good his intentions , Morales' attempts to increase coca production WILL cause an increase in drug trafficking, and I think that he his dreaming when he says that he can decrease cocaine production while increasing the coca crop. You would have to be high on something to believe that such a ridiculaous strategy would work.