Mexico expected to enact liberalized drug law
The Mexican legislature has voted quietly to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and other drugs. Past efforts have proved highly controversial, most recently three years ago, but President Felipe Calderón is expected to sign the bill into law this time.
By Tracy Wilkinson
Los Angeles Times
President Felipe Calderón proposed the drug legislation.
About the bill
Users caught with small amounts of drugs clearly intended for "personal and immediate use" would not be criminally prosecuted. Instead, they would be told of available clinics and encouraged to enter a rehabilitation program. Among the most common substances, permitted amounts would be five grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of cocaine, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine and 50 milligrams of heroin.
Los Angeles Times
MEXICO CITY — Will Mexican cities become Latin Amsterdams, flooded by drug users seeking penalty-free tokes and toots?
That is the fear, if somewhat overstated, of some Mexican officials, especially in northern border states that serve as a mecca for underage U.S. drinkers.
The Mexican legislature has voted quietly to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and other drugs. Past efforts have proved highly controversial, most recently three years ago, but President Felipe Calderón is expected to sign the bill into law this time.
There has been less protest this time around, in part because there hasn't been much publicity.
Some critics have suggested easing the punishment on drug possession sends the wrong message at a time when Calderón is waging a bloody war on major narcotics traffickers. But Calderón proposed the decriminalization legislation.
His reasoning: It makes sense to distinguish between small-time users and big-time dealers, while re-targeting major crime-fighting resources away from the former and toward the latter and their drug-lord bosses.
"The important thing is ... that consumers are not treated as criminals," said Rafael Ruiz Mena, secretary general of the National Institute of Penal Sciences. "It is a public-health problem, not a penal problem."
The legislation was approved at the height of a swine-flu outbreak in Mexico that dominated the public's — and the world's — attention. Meeting at times behind closed doors — the better to prevent the spread of disease, officials said — the lower and upper houses of Congress passed the bill in late April. It awaits Calderón's signature.
Three years ago, in May 2006, then-President Vicente Fox, from Calderón's conservative National Action Party (PAN), vetoed a similar bill that he initially had supported. Fox backed down only under pressure from Washington, D.C., where the Bush administration complained that decriminalization for even small amounts could increase drug use.
But with less than a month to go before critical midterm elections in which his party is struggling to maintain control of the legislature, Calderón cannot afford to be seen as bowing to the United States, analysts say.
The Obama administration also has not publicly objected to the legislation, even though Michele Leonhart, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration said in April that legalization of drugs "would be a failed law-enforcement strategy for both the U.S. and Mexico."
So Calderón is expected to sign the bill into law, political observers say. Calderón's office did not comment.
Mexican government officials stress they are talking about decriminalization, not legalization. Until now, courts decided on a case-by-case basis whether and how to punish first-time drug-use offenders. And standard criteria for quantities hadn't existed.
Mexico is woefully underequipped to handle a booming drug-abuse problem.
The country for decades was a transit point for cocaine, marijuana and other drugs headed to the United States. But domestic consumption has soared more recently. A 2007 government study found the number of "addicts" in Mexico doubled in the previous five years.
Drug abuse has worsened, in part, because some of the big cartels pay their people with cocaine, marijuana or other such substances.
Clinics and other institutions that specialize in treatment and prevention have not kept up with the trend. The government is building 310 centers to improve care, but experts say that is not enough.
The legislation has received criticism from religious leaders and several officials of northern border states, who fear that so-called "drug tourists" will begin flocking to towns and cities already besieged by violence.
Mary Ellen Hernandez, director of the Rio Grande Safe Communities Coalition in El Paso, Texas, across the border from the blood-soaked Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, said she worried decriminalization would lure Americans into a drug world they aren't prepared for and increase violence on both sides of the border.
"Already, the drugs that don't come over into the U.S. are being handed out by dealers to younger and younger children [in Mexico], 8-, 9-, 10-year-olds, hooking them," said Hernandez, whose agency specializes in drug prevention. "And then [the youths] steal to feed the habit."
Except for a relatively few voices, however, there has been minimal protest over the bill, and some praise.
Luciano Pascoe, vice president of the small left-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD), said the legislation was a positive "first step" that helped "shatter the stigma that consumers are criminals."
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
Mexico Liberalizes Drug Laws
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headed in the right direction but need to speed it up even more so that most of these drugs are not only decriminalized but treated as controlled substances by the governments, and taxed. there has to be another way besides this endless war on drugs; plus far too many mexicans are becoming addicted to drugs as this goes on (apparently many of the cartels pay with a combo of cash and drugs) and as we know many illicit drugs are relatively cheap in mexico and there's simply not enough treatment facilities and rehabilitation programs.
imagine what the $5 billion they spend a year on this drug war could do for rehab etc. mexico needs to study how some European nations have dealt with the harsh realities of addiction. But my overall take on this is that this kind of Prohibition is futile and a losing battle and they need to treat addiction and distribution from a social-medical-psychological dimension/model rather than as an issue that can be solved by more militarization of the society and through more incarceration. just a short idea about a big problem which has many complicated facets
imagine what the $5 billion they spend a year on this drug war could do for rehab etc. mexico needs to study how some European nations have dealt with the harsh realities of addiction. But my overall take on this is that this kind of Prohibition is futile and a losing battle and they need to treat addiction and distribution from a social-medical-psychological dimension/model rather than as an issue that can be solved by more militarization of the society and through more incarceration. just a short idea about a big problem which has many complicated facets
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mexicoetal.com
- PV Beachbum
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This is almost not worth replying to. Everyone has a different take on it. I understand that drug use has nothing to do with the trafficking violence.
However with how lax things already are. I don't want children exposed to drug use because it's legal now. As it is my neighbors allow their children to sip beer and wine. I couldn't imagine them allowing their kids to smoke pot because it's legal for adults to do so now.
However with how lax things already are. I don't want children exposed to drug use because it's legal now. As it is my neighbors allow their children to sip beer and wine. I couldn't imagine them allowing their kids to smoke pot because it's legal for adults to do so now.
