September 22, 2010 3:02PM # Spain’s Former Drug Czarina Endorses Legalization By [Juan Carlos Hidalgo](https://www.cato.org/people/juan-carlos-hidalgo) --- SHARE Quoting great classical liberal minds such as Milton Friedman, Gary Becker and Mario Vargas Llosa, Spain’s former drug Czarina Araceli Manjón-Cabeza endorsed drug legalization today in [a compelling op-ed](http://www.elpais.com/articulo/opinion/Drogas/seguir/prohibicion/elpepiopi/20100922elpepiopi_12/Tes) \[in Spanish\] published in *El País*, Spain’s leading newspaper. Just a week earlier, Felipe González, Spain’s former Primer Minister, [also came out in support of drug legalization](http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/sep/15/former_spanish_prime_minister_sa). Manjón-Cabeza takes particular aim at the UN International Narcotics Control Board for its criticisms of the different decriminalization and harm-reduction policies implemented in recent years in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Spain, among other countries. She calls the INCB’s views “inadmissible.” She concluded by calling prohibition a “savage and inefficient instrument that is not the ‘solution’ but instead a big part of the problem.” Manjón-Cabeza says that insisting on prohibitionist policies amounts to “insanity.” Finally, some common sense talk from a former drug czar. ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).