Mexico poised to allow small amounts of drugs

[Troll]

Mexico poised to allow small amounts of drugs
Congress decriminalizes possession of cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, pot

MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s Congress approved a bill Friday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin for personal use — a measure sure to raise questions in Washington about Mexico’s commitment to the war on drugs.

The only step remaining was the signature of the president, whose office indicated he would sign it.

Mexican officials hope the law will help police focus on large-scale trafficking operations, rather than minor drug busts. The bill also stiffens penalties for trafficking and possession of drugs — even small quantities — by government employees or near schools, and maintains criminal penalties for drug sales
The Bush administration had no immediate reaction.

The bill, passed by Mexico’s Senate on a 53-26 vote with one abstention, had already been approved in the lower house of Congress and was sent to the desk of President Vicente Fox for his signature.

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

The bill says criminal charges will no longer be brought for possession of up to 25 milligrams of heroin, five grams of marijuana (about one-fifth of an ounce, or about four joints), and half a gram of cocaine — about half the standard street-size quantity, which is enough for several lines of the drug.

Array of other drugs allowed
“No charges will be brought against ... addicts or consumers who are found in possession of any narcotic for personal use,” according to the Senate bill, which also lays out allowable quantities for a large array of other drugs, including LSD, MDA, ecstasy — about two pills’ worth, — and amphetamines.

Some of the amounts are eye-popping: Mexicans would be allowed to possess 2.2 pounds of peyote, the button-sized hallucinogenic cactus used in some native Indian religious ceremonies.

Mexican law now leaves open the possibility of dropping charges against people caught with drugs if they are considered addicts and if “the amount is the quantity necessary for personal use.” But the exemption isn’t automatic.

The new bill drops the “addict” requirement — automatically allowing any “consumers” to have drugs — and sets out specific allowable quantities.

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

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. In both countries, commercial growing of marijuana is outlawed.

The effects could be significant, given that Mexico is rapidly becoming a drug-consuming nation as well as a shipment point for traffickers, and given the number of U.S. students who flock to border cities or resorts like Cancun and Acapulco on vacation.

“This is going to increase addictions in Mexico,” said Ulisis Bon, a drug treatment expert in Tijuana, where heroin use is rampant. “A lot of Americans already come here to buy medications they can’t get up there ... Just imagine, with heroin.”

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12535896/

[Roger]

The Liberals had it in their plans to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana here in Canada. This infuriated the Americans. Then the Liberals lost the last election. There is no way the Conservatives will do that.

[Marine]

"MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s Congress approved a bill Friday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin for personal use — a measure sure to raise questions in Washington about Mexico’s commitment to the war on drugs."


Oh, come on. That country is home to some of the biggest drug cartels in the world. The war on drugs outside of our own borders (and inside our own most of the time), is a joke.

[Troll]

Fox balks at signing drug decriminalization law
Mexican president wants changes in measure he previously said he’d sign

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, hours after U.S. officials warned the plan could encourage “drug tourism.”

Fox sent the measure back to Congress for changes, but his office did not mention the U.S. criticism.

“Without underestimating the progress made on the issue, and with sensitivity toward the opinions expressed by various sectors of society, the administration has decided to suggest changes,” according to a statement from his office.

Fox said he will ask “Congress to make the needed corrections to make it absolutely clear in our country, the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a criminal offense.”

On Tuesday, Fox’s spokesman had called the bill “an advance” and pledged the president would sign it. But the measure, passed Friday by Congress, drew a storm of criticism because it eliminates criminal penalties possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamines and PCP, as well as marijuana and cocaine.

U.S. government in rare objection
Weighing in, the U.S. government Wednesday expressed a rare public objection to an internal Mexican political development, saying anyone caught with illegal drugs in Mexico should be prosecuted or given mandatory drug treatment.

“U.S. officials ... urged Mexican representatives to review the legislation urgently, to avoid the perception that drug use would be tolerated in Mexico, and to prevent drug tourism,” U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Judith Bryan said.

There are concerns the measure could increase drug use by border visitors and U.S. students who flock to Mexico on vacation.

Bryan said the U.S. government wants Mexico “to ensure that all persons found in possession of any quantity of illegal drugs be prosecuted or be sent into mandatory drug treatment programs.”

New Congress, new elections
The legislature has adjourned for the summer, and when it comes back, it will have an entirely new lower house and one-third new Senate members following the July 2 elections, which will also make the outgoing Fox a lame duck.

However, Sen. Jorge Zermeno, of Fox’s conservative National Action Party — a supporter of the bill — said he thought Congress would be open to changing the legislation to delete a clause that extends to all “consumers” the exemption from prosecution that was originally meant to cover only recognized drug addicts.

The word ’consumer’ can be eliminated so that the only exemption clause would be for drug addicts,” Zermeno told The Associated Press. “There’s still time to get this through.”

The bill contained many points that experts said were positive: it empowered state and local police — not just federal officers — to go after drug dealers, stiffened some penalties and closed loopholes that dealers had long used to escape prosecution.

But the broad decriminalization clause was what soured many — both in Mexico and abroad — to the proposal.

Rite of passage for U.S. teens
Hard-partying U.S. teens and college students have long crossed the Rio Grande to knock back cheap beers and tequila shots in Mexico away from the watchful gaze of parents, teachers and police.

“When I heard the news I said, ‘Mexico is going to be the new Amsterdam,’” said Texan student Matthew Flores, 23, in reference to the Dutch city where liberal narcotics laws attract drug tourists from across Europe. “People will now be able to go over the border, maybe smoke a doobie (marijuana cigarette) and hang out, and it won’t be a big deal.”

But authorities in Mexico’s Baja California state estimate that as many as one in eight people there already abuse narcotics. They say 98 percent of crimes committed in the gritty border city of Tijuana are carried out by drug users, and that they would look at possible ways to get around the law if passed.

“As it is, there are fights and public order problems caused by young people who come here to party,” policewoman Ana Lilia Ortega said in Reynosa, a sweltering Mexican border city with gaudy bars and strip clubs south of McAllen.

“They come to have a few drinks and some tequilas, and now with drugs on top we’re not going to be able to control it.”

North of the border ...
In El Paso, Texas, a non-profit group that seeks to crack down on bingeing by local youngsters who cross the border to Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico, says loosening drug laws would deepen the already existing problem.

“It’s already a concern that teenagers and college-age kids go to Juarez to drink, and I’m worried they are going to be encouraged to try harder drugs because it won’t be against the law,” said Marge Bartoletti, the director of the Rio Grande Safe Communities Coalition.

“My fear is we’re going to see overdoses and more trips to the emergency room, and an increase in preventable traffic accidents as kids are now going to be coming back high” she added.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12598317/