Mexico legalises possesion of all drugs

[burnthebeautiful]

I was unable to find this on any english-speaking sites, so here's a translation from this article (http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/utrikes/did_12515793.asp) in a Swedish newspaper today. Finally someone gets it! Of course I disagree with having any sort of "upper limit" for how much you can own and needing a doctors note, but it's still a huge step in the right direction. I also like how police and judges will get a 50 percent higher sentance.
"Everything from marijuana to heavier drugs like cocain and heroin will now become legal to own for personal use in Mexico. The very unusual decision was voted through in the countries senate early this morning.

The legalisation is a part of Mexicos modern drug-fighting strategy. The new law legalises marijuana, heroin, cocain, as well as smokeable opium, LSD, amfetemins and hallucinogenic drugs.

Around the world drug legalisation has been debated for a long time, but very few countries have changed their laws in this direction. In europe, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland are examples of nations that have allowed lighter drugs. In Columbia cocain and Marijuana have long been allowed in small doses.

Mexico and Culombia are also two of the biggest drug-bases in the world. American authorities have estimated that 500 tones of cocain is transported from Columbio to USA yearly. Mexico is an important transit stop, but a lot of the drugs are consumed within the country.

With the new law the Mexican state wants to show what can be described as personal use, and wants to stop wasting time arresting regular people. There is also hope that the new law will make violence drop when fewer people have to commit crimes to get drugs.

At the same time, the punishments for possessing more than what the state classifies as personal use will rise. Between 4 and 8 years prison will be the sentance for those that possess more than the allowed amount. The punishment will be 50 percent higher for police, judges or anyone else working in the anti-drug field.

The allowed dosages according to the new law are 0.5 grams of cocain, 25 milligrams of heroin, 5 grams of marijuana, and 5 grams of smokable opiom. The only requirement is that that the person possesing the drug have a confirmation from a doctor that they're a drug addict or need the drugs for medicinal purposes. But it's assumed having a doctors prescription will be a formality that anyone will be able to get from a low-payed doctor."

[mvpel]

Now the drug smugglers can operate openly and with the support of the army and police on their payrolls at Mexico's northern border.

[BaRbArIaN]

Won't change the status quo down there one bit, its already corrupt and owned.

[Fluff and Stuff]

It is not all drugs and it is decriminalization but yes, this is amazing news.

[aries]

Wow, are they going to legalize posession/manufacture as well?

I'm skeptical about the societal impact legalizing all variety of drugs, but at the same time I desperately want to be proven wrong.

[Friday]

Wow!!     I don't know which is more shocking: this story (assuming it's true), or the media blackout the U.S. is clearly placing on it.  Check out CNN; not a word about such a radical change in one of our two adjacent neighbors.  I can read French passably well; I'm going to look for confirmation of this story.  Burn, thanks for posting it.

[Fluff and Stuff]

Wow, are they going to legalize posession/manufacture as well?

I'm skeptical about the societal impact legalizing all variety of drugs, but at the same time I desperately want to be proven wrong.

Well, don't worry.  They did not legalize and it was not all drugs and it is just tiny amounts.

Also, I don't think there is a blackout.  I say it as the LEAD story on yahoo (this is major media, millions of readers) a couple hours ago.  I started spreading it on myspace and say others doing the same (it should hit most myspace members thru bullets), and will likely be on every major news web site in America talk radio and all cable news channels after awhile.  Look for it on FTL

[Pat McCotter]

Mexico to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin
By Noel Randewich
16 minutes ago

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."

[Viscid]

Mexico's Fox balks at signing drug law
Under U.S. pressure, president backs off decriminalization bill

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox backed off a bill that would have decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs, sending it back to Congress for changes rather than signing it into law.

The announcement late Wednesday came after U.S. officials urged Mexico to tighten the proposed law "to prevent drug tourism." On Tuesday, Fox's spokesman had said he would sign the bill.

Fox 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," according to a statement from the president's office released Wednesday.

The measure, which was passed Friday by Mexico's Congress, drew a storm of criticism because it eliminates criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine and PCP, as well as marijuana and cocaine.

Congress 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 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 drug "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.

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Judith Bryan said that "U.S. officials expressed their opposition to legalization or decriminalization of narcotics in any country" and "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."

Some U.S. officials have expressed concern that 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."

Mexico's top police official, Eduardo Medina Mora, acknowledged on Tuesday that the U.S. anti-drug agency has expressed concern about the law.

Some senators and community leaders in Mexico also objected to the bill. But even if it had been signed, Medina Mora noted that Mexican cities have the power to impose fines and overnight jail detentions for those caught with drugs in public.

Medina Mora said legislators had changed Fox's original proposal by inserting a controversial table laying out maximum amounts of drugs for "personal use," including cocaine, heroin, marijuana and ecstasy.

Current Mexican law allows judges latitude to drop charges if suspects can prove they are addicts and the quantity they were caught with is small enough to be considered "for personal use," or if they are first-time offenders.

The new bill would have made the decriminalization automatic, allowed "consumers" as well as addicts to have drugs, and delineated specific allowable quantities, which do not appear in the current law.

Under the law, consumers could have legally possessed 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 four "lines," or half the standard street-sale quantity.

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

[Fluff and Stuff]

Thank you big brother. If the US government manages to get get Mexico to back off and change this bill it will be very bad.  Not only does that mean that the US controls Mexican drug policy, but it means that the bill will overall be very strong and impose lots of new measures on those that use or sell drugs.  At least it will allow potheads and crackheads to get in no trouble for using drugs, I guess that is a positive.

[Pat McCotter]

We just can't keep our nose out of other people's business.

[AlanM]

We just can't keep our nose out of other people's business.

Not if you wish to dominate the world. 

[Pat McCotter]

We just can't keep our nose out of other people's business.

Not if you wish to dominate the world. 

My Dad once asked me the proper pronunciation of 'hegemony' and, though I had read the word many times, I had to look it up. Now I know the meaning of it also. We are living the American Hegemony, or Pax Americana.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I guess i will have to cancel my trip to Mexico

[burnthebeautiful]

The law was veto'd