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[Floyd_]

I just heard the news that Mexico is on the path to decriminilizing small amounts of most drugs. Thoughts? Reactions?

Suddenly Mexico is extremely appealing. Not so much because of the drugs, but certainly because of the freedom to use them if i want.

There will be consequences from america though.

[Guy Courchesne]

Can you put up a link to the story if you read it online? Mexico City seems to be moving in the other direction, looking to crack down on trafficking. I hadn't heard anything about decriminalizing.

Out in the countryside, it seems the police do much of the trafficking. I guess decriminalization would make it easier for them.

[cwc]

Televisa ran a story today complete with the legal possession limits for the new decriminalization law in the works. Opium, peyote, everything. 5 grams of marijuana. About 25 drugs are contemplated.
They did pass a law allowing state and local govts to enact and enforce drug laws. It appears that only the feds could, had the authority to that is, arrest before. Crazy.

[ls650]

http://mx.news.yahoo.com/060428/7/1pbkg.html

[M@tt]

does anyone think it actually makes a difference in mexico if something illegal is "decriminalized"? people will just save on mordidas. otherwise i think the impact will be nil.

[corporatehuman]

Mexico Votes to Decriminalize Some Drugs

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 29, 2006
Filed at 9:06 a.m. ET

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexicans would be allowed to possess small amounts of cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use under a bill approved by lawmakers that some worry could prove to be a lure to young Americans.

The bill now only needs President Vicente Fox's signature to become law and that does not appear to be an obstacle. His office said that decriminalizing drugs will free up police to focus on major dealers.

''This law gives police and prosecutors better legal tools to combat drug crimes that do so much damage to our youth and children,'' said Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar.

The Senate approved the bill Friday in the final hours of its closing session. Mexico's lower house had already endorsed the legislation.

The measure appeared to surprise U.S. officials. State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said the department was trying to get ''more information'' about it. One U.S. diplomat, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said ''we're still studying the legislation, but any effort to decriminalize illegal drugs would not be helpful.''

Some worried the law would increase drug addiction in Mexico and cause problems with the United States. Millions of American youths visit Mexico's beach resorts and border towns each year.

''A lot of Americans already come here to buy medications they can't get up there ... Just imagine, with heroin,'' said Ulisis Bon, a drug treatment expert in Tijuana, where heroin use is rampant.

In off-the-record chats and through their communications with U.S. officials, Mexican officials tried to depict the drug bill as a simple clarification of existing laws. But the changes are clear.

Currently, Mexican law leaves open the possibility of dropping charges against people caught with drugs if they can prove they are drug addicts and if an expert certifies they were caught with ''the quantity necessary for personal use.''

The new bill drops the ''addict'' requirement, allows ''consumers'' to have drugs, and sets out specific allowable quantities, which do not appear in the current law.

Those quantities are sometimes eye-popping: Mexicans would be allowed to posses 2.2 pounds of peyote, the button-sized hallucinogenic cactus used in some Indian religious ceremonies.

Police would no longer bother with possession of up to 25 milligrams of heroin, 5 grams of marijuana (about one-fifth of an ounce, or about four joints), or 0.5 grams of cocaine -- the equivalent of about 4 ''lines,'' or half the standard street-sale quantity.

The law lays out allowable quantities for a large array of other drugs, including LSD, MDA, MDMA (ecstasy, about two pills' worth), and amphetamines.

However the bill stiffens penalties for trafficking and possession of drugs -- even small quantities -- by government employees or near schools, and maintains criminal penalties for drug sales.

Sales of all those drugs would remain illegal under the proposed law, unlike in the Netherlands, where the sale of marijuana for medical use is legal and it can be bought with a prescription in pharmacies.

And while Dutch authorities look the other way regarding the open sale of cannabis in designated coffee shops -- something Mexican police seem unlikely to do -- the Dutch have zero tolerance for heroin and cocaine.

Sen. Miguel Angel Navarro of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party argued against the bill. ''This authorizes the consumption of opium, morphine, heroin, cocaine, and a variety of drugs that can only be bought illicitly.''

Roman Catholic Bishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago, president of the Mexican Council of Bishops, also expressed concern.

''It's not by legalizing the possession or use of drugs that drug trafficking is going to be combatted,'' the bishop told reporters, ''and that's why the government should be cautious about implementing this measure.''

The law comes at a time of heightened tensions over a U.S. proposal for immigration reform, including legalization of many of America's estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

A demonstration by thousands of Mexican workers Friday to promote union solidarity turned into a protest against America's vast influence on the nation's economy, with many protesters saying they will take part in a boycott of U.S. products next week. The proposed boycott is timed to coincide with Monday's ''Day Without Immigrants'' protest in the U.S., aimed at pushing Congress to approve the immigration reform.

Ethan Nadelmann, director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, said Mexico's bill removed ''a huge opportunity for low-level police corruption.'' Mexican police often release people detained for minor drug possession, in exchange for bribes.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Drugs.html

[cwc]

This came from Yahoo�s Odd News.

Mexico to decriminalize pot By Noel Randewich
Sat Apr 29, 1:23 AM ET



MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Possessing marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if they are in small amounts for personal use under new reforms passed by Congress that quickly drew U.S. criticism.

ADVERTISEMENT

The measure given final passage 53-26 by senators in a late night session on Thursday is aimed at letting police focus on their battle against major drug dealers, and President Vicente Fox is expected to sign it into law.

"This law provides more judicial tools for authorities to fight crime," presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said on Friday.

He said the reforms, which were proposed by the government and approved earlier this week by the lower house of Congress, made laws against major traffickers "more severe."

The legislation came as a shock to Washington, which counts on Mexico's support in its war against drug smuggling gangs who move massive quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines through Mexico to U.S. consumers.

"I would say any law that decriminalizes dangerous drugs is not very helpful," said Judith Bryan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. "Drugs are dangerous. We don't think it is the appropriate way to go."

She said U.S. officials were still studying the reforms, under which police will not penalize people for possessing up to 5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of opium, 25 milligrams of heroin or 500 milligrams of cocaine.

People caught with larger quantities of drugs will be treated as narcotics dealers and face increased jail terms under the plan.

The legal changes will also decriminalize the possession of limited quantities of other drugs, including LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote -- a psychotropic cactus found in Mexico's northern deserts.

Fox has been seen as a loyal ally of the United States in the war on drugs, but the reforms could create new tensions.

A delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives visited Mexico last week and met with senior officials to discuss drug control issues, but was told nothing of the planned legislative changes, said Michelle Gress, a House subcommittee counsel who was part of the visiting team. "We were not informed," she said.

HARDENED CRIMINALS

Hundreds of people, including many police officers, have been killed in Mexico in the past year as drug cartels battle for control of lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.

The violence has raged mostly in northern Mexico but in recent months has spread south to cities like vacation resort Acapulco.

Under current law, it is up to local judges and police to decide on a case-by-case basis whether people should be prosecuted for possessing small quantities of drugs, a source at the Senate's health commission told Reuters.

"The object of this law is to not put consumers in jail, but rather those who sell and poison," said Senator Jorge Zermeno of the ruling National Action Party.

Hector Michel Camarena, an opposition senator from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, warned that although well intentioned, the law may go too far.

"There are serious questions we have to carefully analyse so that through our spirit of fighting drug dealing, we don't end up legalizing," he said. "We have to get rid of the concept of the (drug) consumer."

(Additional reporting by Anahi Rama)

[thelmadatter]

Dunno why but I gotta first say that other than alcohol, I dont do drugs....

I have a mostly positve opionion about this law, esp for marihuana. For the really hard-core stuff, like herion, I am less enthralled. However, if its all or nothing, lets go for all and see what happens. It might free up cops for more serious stuff, or it might make addicts more visible (good thing or not, dont know). Will it affect efforts againt the narcos.... nahhhhhhh. Totally different ball game.

I agree that the US will put pressure on Mexico not to pass the law, but I hope Mexico resists.

[delacosta]

THe argument that decriminalizing drug use increases consumption has been proven to be false in some of the more progressive Euorepean countries that have tried it so far. THank God Canada is also heading in that direction, but we'll see with the new conservatives in power.

I can just see my suegros sitting around after dinner this week: dear, now that's it's legal, wadaya say we run on down to the narcomendudo and score some heroin and coaine! Yes, I've always wanted to try it!

The US seems to thrive on wanting or needing to live in a state of war, to such a degree that they are willing to declare war on millions of their own citizens via the 'war on drugs'. Addiciton is a social and health problem. Locking up addicts with true criminals or even casual drug experimenters or brandishing them with criminal records is quite barbarian.

[Guy Courchesne]

If Mexico makes it easier (or not as hard?) to have access to drugs, especially the hard stuff, I certainly hope they make it equally easy to get access to medical help to control addiction. I don't see that they have so this new policy is only half-assed in my opinion.

[MELEE]

I just found these two stories.

Mexico's Fox Backs Off Drug Decriminalization Bill
By VOA News
04 May 2006

The office of Mexican President Vicente Fox says he will not sign a bill that would have legalized possession of small amounts of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
President Fox's office said in a statement Wednesday that the law would be sent back to Congress for changes. The statement said in Mexico, the possession of drugs and their consumption "are, and will continue to be, crimes."

The Mexican Senate passed the bill last week, surprising many in the United States. Mr. Fox's office had said he would sign the measure.
( http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-05-04-voa16.cfm )

And

Spokesman: Mexico's president intends to sign drug decriminalization bill
7:46 a.m. May 2, 2006

MEXICO CITY � Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign into law a measure that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and even heroin, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Spokesman Ruben Aguilar defended the law, approved Friday by Mexico's Senate, despite criticism by some in the United States that it could increase problems with casual drug use by visitors or in border areas.

�The president is going to sign this law,� said Aguilar, who called the legislation �a better tool ... that allows better action and better coordination in the fight against drug dealing.�
( http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060502-0746-mexico-decriminalizingdrugs.html )

Looks like somebody got to Chente yesterday...

[Guy Courchesne]

Maybe Martita got some sense into Vicente. I don't think anyone is fooled into thinking that it will result in an increase of Americans coming over to consume. There's more than enough filtering through to the US to satisfy demand there.

All this law does is remove the responsibility of government to deal with drug consumption in this country. There really needs to be an accompanying increase in social monitoring or assistance to drug users if you sign something like this into law.

[delacosta]

Of coure there is a need for more treatment options for those facing addiction problems. They are expensive for the most part, but still much cheaper than the whole jail/police/ enforcement/health cost as as a result of drugs being ilegal. Currently, in most countries jail is defacto a treatment option.
By your argument Guy it sounds that you thik that decriminalizing drugs will lead to more consumption and addiction, which has been proven to be false. All it does is remove the criminal element from the equation, which was exactly the case when prohibition was ended.
Abusing drugs, all drugs, alcohol and ciggarettes included, is not a good thing. Criminalising poor choices does not help anyone.

[Guy Courchesne]

I should make a distinction here...cocaine and heroin in particular are the problems in this new law. I don't believe there is a western country that has decriminalized cocaine, and heroin addiction programs are the front line tool for that drug in many places. Marijuana? I couldn't care less about it, but the much harder stuff should still be illegal.

I've seen addicition firsthand to the harder stuff, in Canada and here in Mexico. It is a medical issue that results from a criminal issue. Neither is solved by working on half the equation.

I really only think that the law is poorly planned, at best. It's not necessary to argue that it would increase consumption. It is more of an approval of the supply chain that pervades Mexico.

[M@tt]

how can you "prove" something like that? i'm not saying it would increase use, but i don't believe either that you can prove or disprove complex social phenomena like drug use, especially when you move from one culture to another. maybe in mexico it would increase use. maybe it wouldn't. you can't "prove" that it will or won't until you go ahead and do it, and then watch what happens.