Mexico to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin
By Noel Randewich
Fri Apr 28, 6:51 PM ET

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."

How do you make it legal to possess small amounts of something that is illegal to sell? Unless you manufacture or grow the illegal substance you have to get it from somewhere. The next logical (but not really logical, at least to me) step is to decriminalize any amount.

Didn't Canada just do the same with pot recently?

If my con law from law school survives in my memory, didn't the SC at one time say that individuals have a constitutionally protected right to possess pornography in their home, but you can prosecute for its sale? I never understood that one.

5 grams of heroin not a crime?

The beggining of the end of marijuana prohibition?

As a former misdemeanor DA, I felt I had to chime in. How many marijuana cases did I prosecute where I thought- If we just taxed his product, we could save police time, make millions in revenue, and take an entire industry worth billions, out of criminal hands.

Hopefully we are headed in that direction.

As for legalizing the harder drugs- that's a tough one. I'll be anxious to see how that plays out.

5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of opium, 25 milligrams of heroin or 500 milligrams of cocaine

Umm.. isn't that about 50 uses of opium?

This should have a positive impact on tourism in Mexico! I wonder if that is why it was passed. Additionally, everyone living close to the border will apparently be able to cross over to indulge in small amounts without penalty.

Fox will sign bill allowing recreational drug use
The measure decriminalizes small amounts of narcotics in Mexico

By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign into law a measure that decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs for personal use, his spokesman said Tuesday.


[So, will illegal aliens next be protesting that they can't possess those same drugs in the US?]

I can understand everyone's concerns about our neighbor decriminalizing small (and not so small amounts) of drugs. I used to prosecute drug cases on the border in the state and fed systems, so I know how big the problem is. One of you speculates that everyone living near the border would cross over to indulge without penalty. I'm not so concerned with that one. Drugs are already there and people near AND FAR from the border go to indulge and to import small and large amounts of drugs into the U.S. Maybe this way, the drugs will at least stay there. America is already reliant on their supply, and Mexican drug cartels simply fill the demand. Interestingly, everyone on this board has ignored the part of the story that says the Mexican govt is trying to focus on the larger picture and larger suppliers. Stop running around like Chicken Little crying that the sky is falling. It's been falling.

Has this Mexican experiment been performed elsewhere? If so, what were the results?

Yes, this has been tried before, in America, until well into the 20th century. The results? People with opium, cocaine, or marijuana habits were able to grow their own or pick up a bottle of patent medicine on the way home from work, and continue to be a productive member of society. The police focused on catching criminals, and gangs had to find other ways to support themselves. I would argue that prohibition is the experiment.

quote:

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Originally posted by Boyd Kennedy:
Yes, this has been tried before, in America, until well into the 20th century. The results? People with opium, cocaine, or marijuana habits were able to grow their own or pick up a bottle of patent medicine on the way home from work, and continue to be a productive member of society. ...

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Actually, my recollection of the history of that period is that Prohibition started precisely because drunks and druggies were not being productive members of society, and that Prohibition was intended to dry people out and get them back on the wagon so they could be productive again. That's why Henry Ford was a proponent of Prohibition. And why womens' rights groups supported it (so drunk husbands would stop beating their wives and children and start supporting them). Interestingly, it was also a patriotism issue -- nativists pointed out that most beer (aka "Kaiser Brew") was brewed and imported by German breweries, with whom we were at war (at the time Prohibition was being debated). And if my memory is correct, Prohibition drastically reduced the alcohol-related death rate in the US and increased domestic productivity (although the latter could be correlative, not causative, depending on other concurrent developments).

That said, prohibition failed for one simple reason -- people wanted to drink. And that's the same reason drink/drug laws have mixed success today.

(gee, and I thought a history degree would be useless! )

[addendum: I guess most of this applies to capital-P Prohibition of alcohol; I'm less informed about the piecemeal prohibition of illicit drugs, but I imagine the causes of both were similar]

[This message was edited by Shannon Edmonds on 05-03-06 at .]

FOX DECIDES NOT TO SIGN DRUG LEGALIZATION BILL
President Vicente Fox reversed course Wednesday and decided not to sign a drug legalization bill that critics on both sides of the border said would turn Mexico into a narcotics haven.

Fox administration officials had said Tuesday that the president would sign the bill, which set generous limits for the possession of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, opium, amphetamines and several natural and synthetic hallucinogens.

Late Wednesday, the Fox administration said in a news release that the president would return the bill to Congress to "make the needed corrections so it is absolutely clear in our country the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a criminal offense."

The legislation was intended to close loopholes in current law that grant judges discretion to waive prison sentences for addicts. Judges have exploited the loopholes on behalf of traffickers, officials said.

But rather than apply only to addicts, the bill ? which Mexico's Congress approved early Friday at the end of its 2005-06 legislative session ? was amended to include anyone older than 18.

News that Mexico would allow any adult to possess and use opiates, marijuana, LSD, Ecstasy and peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, drew international criticism.

Phew!

Pardon me while I cancel my vacation plans to Mexico. Now I have to go back to the original and more expensive plan of traveling to Amsterdamn it!

I was kind of looking forward to seeing the impact of this new law on MTV programming.

I love Mexico, but in Texas we are too close to enjoy this kind of experiment with criminal laws that could only have a profound effect on our side of the border. Sorry David, but I don't think we need any kind of follow-up TV program either!!! There is more than enough trash to sift through in the current programming. Perhaps this was an appropriate use of the executive veto given relations with the US.

suddenly susan? good morning miami? teachers? come on, there's never enough trash to sift through on TV. they're always happy to make more. of course, after the president said he was going to sign it and then changed his mind, perhaps the Mexican Congress felt a little punk'd.

[I'm shamelessly stealing this from someone funnier than I:]

"Elsewhere, one day after Mexican President Vicente Fox backed off signing a drug decriminalization bill, supermodel Kate Moss abruptly canceled a trip to Mexico."