Quote:MEXICO CITY, April 28 (Reuters) - Mexico's Senate approved a bill on Tuesday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of narcotics for personal use, in order to free resources to fight violent drug cartels.
The bill, proposed by conservative President Felipe Calderon, would make it legal to carry up to 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of marijuana, 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of cocaine and tiny quantities of other drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines.
Mexico's Congress passed a similar proposal in 2006 but the bill was vetoed by Calderon's predecessor Vicente Fox, under pressure from the United States, which said it would increase drug abuse, but now is worried by the drug-related violence along its border.
Calderon has staked his presidency on curtailing the escalating violence between rival drug gangs as they fight over smuggling routes to the United States, with violence spilling into U.S. cities like Phoenix and Tucson.
Calderon was praised by U.S. President Barack Obama this month for his army crackdown in a visit to the Mexican capital and Washington is sending more agents to its side of the border to curb the flow of guns and cash to the cartels.
Drug violence has killed 2,000 people this year across Mexico after 6,300 deaths in 2008.
The bill, which needs to be approved by the lower house, also allows Mexican states to convict small-time drug dealers, no longer making it a federal crime to peddle drugs. Drug dealers are rarely convicted in Mexico as federal courts are saturated with bigger cases and local judges cannot interfere.
Mexico's Congress convenes for a final session before its recess on Thursday but may call an extraordinary session given the outbreak of deadly swine flu in the country that has forced lawmakers to hold sessions behind closed doors to prevent further contagion. (Reporting by Miguel Angel Gutierrez, editing by Patricia Zengerle)
The New York Times Wrote:MEXICO CITY, April 28 Mexican lawmakers passed a sweeping new drug law early Friday that would crack down on small-time dealers, legalize the possession of small quantities of drugs and mandate treatment for addicts.
Under the bill, it would be legal to have 25 milligrams of heroin, a fifth of an ounce of marijuana or half a gram of cocaine. The bill also makes it legal to possess small amounts of LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote.
President Vicente Fox had proposed the law in January 2004 in the hopes of slowing down the rapid growth in drug addiction and the ranks of small-time dealers that has hit Mexican cities and towns in recent years, just as it has long plagued American cities.
Both houses of the Mexican Congress passed it in a last-minute flurry of legislation as their session drew to a close. The final version of the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 53 to 26 during an all-night session that ended Friday morning. After its final approval, the president's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Mr. Fox would sign it into law.
"This law gives police and prosecutors better legal tools to combat drug crimes that do so much damage to our youth and children," Mr. Aguilar said.
A United States Embassy official in Mexico deplored the new measure. "We have not seen the text, so we cannot comment on it in detail," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. "But any law that would decriminalize dangerous drugs would not be helpful."
Supporters of the bill said it was meant to fix major flaws in Mexico's current drug laws. First, it will allow local judges and the police to decide on a case-by-case basis whether people should be prosecuted when caught with small amounts of drugs. Previously, every drug suspect had to be prosecuted, a system that put many addicts in jail while dealers went free after bribing officials.
Second, the state and local police will be empowered to arrest and prosecute street dealers who are carrying more than the minor amounts allowed under the law. Under existing laws, drug crimes were handled only by federal officials.
The new measure also requires people caught with less than the legal limits to go before a judge, prove they are addicts and seek treatment.
"We are not authorizing the consumption of drugs," said Senator Jorge Zermiño, the bill's sponsor in the Senate. "We are combating it and recognizing that there are addicts that require special treatment. We cannot close our eyes, nor fill our jails with addicts."
But opponents said the law would essentially legalize drug use and lead to more drug abuse and so help drug dealers.
"Here we are authorizing drug use," said Senator Miguel Ángel Navarro of the Party of the Democratic Revolution. "Whether it's a little or a lot, we are legalizing drug use. And I ask who is selling the drugs? Is it now legal to sell drugs in the eyes of the authorities? Clearly not."
The bill was approved as Mexico finds itself in the midst of a war between rival drug cartels that has claimed hundreds of lives, including dozens of police officers, particularly in the Texas border town of Nuevo Laredo and along the Pacific Coast between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo.
The violence has been only part of the social cost of the lucrative drug trade here. Twenty years ago Mexico used to be a country through which drugs passed on their way to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and other major American cities.
These days, however, drug dealers and addicts have become more numerous in border towns and big cities. The growing local market for drugs has spurred higher levels of prostitution, robbery and burglary.
Local police forces have been hamstrung in their efforts to stop street-level dealing. Lacking the training and authority to investigate under the old law, they could arrest someone only if the person was caught in the act of selling drugs. Only the federal police could arrest someone for drug possession.
"The current law is unclear," said José Ángelo Cordova, the chairman of the health committee in the Chamber of Deputies. "If they don't catch the person selling it, they can't charge them with a crime."
DrRusty Wrote:making small amount of drugs legal is going to help CONTROL drugs? Isn't that kind of counter productive?
Well, if they start selling it they can regulate it and force cartels out of business. They probably shouldn't do it with hard drugs like cocaine, but whatever.
If Mexico legalizes coke possession, that's really bad. A "small" amount of coke is enough to get someone addicted enough to require "large" amounts of coke. I am afraid that's the only logical progression that is possible. If Mexico with this action causes drug use in America to rise... well, Obama won't be praising the Mexican president then, and if he will be, we'll have a Republican president in 4 years. People in America are undecided about marijuana, but only total morons support the legalization of stuff like cocaine and heroin.
Haha, this makes me think how on the news thing guy wants to lower the drinking age to 15 and make it so that they have to take a test to get a drinking permit.
That might work, speaking It would teach about hard drinks and such.
However, drugs are somthing else, and I don't think thats the way to control them...
ShiKage Wrote:I think they're stupid... >_> Drugs that harm the body should be kept illegal.
DrRusty Wrote:making small amount of drugs legal is going to help CONTROL drugs? Isn't that kind of counter productive?
Legalizing the harddrug ALCOHOL did miracles everywhere in the world! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, alcohol is an harddrug! You can even buy it in the supermarket! Does it cause any HUGE problems now it's freely available? Not that I know of!
Also, legalizing drugs is the best way to fight the drugs maffia. If they can't earn lots of cash with it, its no longer interesting to sell it they way they do (prices will crash like hell). Also, if you legalize it, you can control and contain it. You can help a lot MORE addicts to get rid of their addiction with more succes!
For example, here in The Netherlands, soft drugs are also (semi) legal. The number of drug crime related incidents dropped like a brick when this was implemented here!
Harddrugs are also freely available to addicts, although they are only allowed to use it under control of expert medics and only inside a hospital (they're not allowed to carry it onto the streets!!!), but again, it's FREE, that means, addicts dont have to go into crime to get the money to pay the drug maffia's insane prices.
Also, this way of legalizing drugs, is WAY WAY cheaper then declaring it illegal and let the police / military fight the maffia. It saves millions of dollars of the tax payers. In the USA you would talk about saving billions of tax money...
I'm not saying everyone should use drugs, because they really HARM your body (look at some pictures of METH addicts on the internet, 30 year olds looking like 90 year olds... really, just dont do drugs...:X).
All I'm saying, legalizing drugs IS the best way:
- You save a LOT of tax payers money.
- It's the ONLY way you can seriously DAMAGE the drug maffia's profits.
- You can control drugs when they're legalized.
- Addicts can be helped in a MUCH better way.
- It already -proved- itself it worked VERY well with Alcohol...
