MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Possessing marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if the drugs are carried in small amounts for personal use, under legislation passed by Congress. The measure given final passage by senators in a late night session on Thursday allows police to focus on their battle against major drug dealers, the government says, 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. The measure was approved earlier by the lower house. Under the legislation, 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. The legislation came as a surprise 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. 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 told Reuters. 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 Sen. Jorge Zermeno of the ruling National Action Party. Fifty-three senators voted for the bill with 26 votes against. 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 analyze 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."
Mexico Is Becoming the Next Colombia by Ted Galen Carpenter Executive Summary Mexico is a major source of heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine for the U.S. market as well as the principal transit and distribution point for cocaine coming in from South America. For years, people both inside and outside Mexico have worried that the country might descend into the maelstrom of corruption and violence that has long plagued the chief drug-source country in the Western Hemisphere, Colombia. There are growing signs that the “Colombianization” of Mexico is now becoming a reality. That tragic prospect is a direct result of Washington’s policy of drug prohibition. A prohibitionist strategy inherently creates a huge black-market premium for trafficking in illegal drugs. The enormous potential profit also attracts the most violence-prone criminal elements. It is a truism that when drugs are outlawed, only outlaws will traffic in drugs. If Mexico goes down the same path as Colombia, the consequences for the United States will be much more severe. Colombia is relatively far away, but Mexico shares a border with the United States and is closely linked to this country economically through the North America Free Trade Agreement. Chaos in Mexico is already spilling over the border and will adversely impact the United States—especially the southwestern states. There is still time for Mexico to halt and eventually reverse the Colombianization process, but for that to occur Washington must make dramatic policy changes. For more than three and a half decades, the United States has pursued a vigorous war on drugs that has produced major social pathologies both here and abroad. It is time to rethink the entire prohibitionist strategy.
Bravo to Ted Galen again. Apparently the different nations of the world are now steadily decriminalizing drugs. The question is, who will be the first to get to full legalization? I'm placing my bets on Latin America.
The Netherlands, if it isn't already. I am personally anti drug, but there is a parallel here with Prohibition that should be explored. Alcoholics, for example, are the cause of much headache and heartache roughly in proportion to the number of users. I can't see that legalizing (recreational?) drugs will produce less trouble from the users than it does now, but I can see that resources would be freed up "to pursue other interests."
Well on a side note, with all the amount of money and troops we've sent to colombia we can just pull those troops home as well as our money and put em on the boarder. Then those that cross get a cross. The cash they carry we seize and offset the cost of the troops. Just my opinion and we all know what those are like. Take care Be safe Poacher.
I do not use drugs or care to but I am definately anti-war-on-drugs and look towards mexico's decrimilization as a progressive step and think we should do the same damned thing...get rid of the piss testing in the work place too...no body's business but your own, what you choose to do with your own time. the whole thing ain't nothing but another strangle hold by the government and the insuranse companies...think how much cheaper it would be just to hand out free crack than to have all those police?
