[lit-ideas] [lit-id] from LA Times--drugs & timing
- From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 02:05:39 -0700
Mexico to Allow Use of Drugs
Fox will sign the bill, one of the world's most permissive policies, in a
bid to curb trafficking. U.S. officials say it will lead to more addiction.
By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer
May 3, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign a bill that would
legalize the use of nearly every drug and narcotic sold by the same Mexican
cartels he's vowed to fight during his five years in office, a spokesman
said Tuesday.
The list of illegal drugs approved for personal consumption by Mexico's
Congress last week is enough to make one dizzy - or worse.
Cocaine. Heroin. LSD. Marijuana. PCP. Opium. Synthetic opiates. Mescaline.
Peyote. Psilocybin mushrooms. Amphetamines. Methamphetamines.
And the per-person amounts approved for possession by anyone 18 or older
could easily turn any college party into an all-nighter: half a gram of
coke, a couple of Ecstasy pills, several doses of LSD, a few marijuana
joints, a spoonful of heroin, 5 grams of opium and more than 2 pounds of
peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus.
The law would be among the most permissive in the world, putting Mexico in
the company of the Netherlands. Critics, including U.S. drug policy
officials, already are worrying that it will spur a domestic addiction
problem and make Mexico a narco-tourism destination.
Even the Netherlands, famous for coffeehouses that sell small quantities of
potent marijuana and hashish, forbids the possession and sale of narcotics.
Colombia allows personal use of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, but not LSD
or PCP.
Selling drugs or using them in public still would be a crime in Mexico.
Anyone possessing drugs still could be held for questioning by police, and
each state could impose fines even on the permitted quantities, the bill
stipulates. But it includes no imprisonment penalties.
Lawmakers who voted for decriminalization, some of whom have expressed
surprise over the details of the bill, said it would for the first time
empower local police to make drug arrests and allow law enforcement in
general to focus on intercepting large drug shipments and major traffickers.
The bill also would stiffen penalties for selling drugs near schools and
authorize state and local police to detain users to check whether amounts
were over the legal limit.
"The law constitutes an important step forward by the Mexican state in its
battle against drug dealing," said Eduardo Medina Mora, secretary of public
security and Mexico's top law enforcement officer.
Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Tuesday that Fox would sign the
measure, calling it an important tool in the fight against drug trafficking.
Fox has avoided public comments on the bill and did not attend a news
conference about it Tuesday.
Since the vote by Congress last week, lawmakers have said they are unsure
who amended the bill, originally aimed at legalizing possession of small
quantities of drugs among addicts, to make it apply to all "consumers."
The Bush administration is refraining from public criticism of Mexico. But
in private meetings Monday with Mexican officials in Washington, U.S.
officials tried to discourage passage of the law, U.S. Embassy officials
here said.
"Any country that embarks on policies that encourage drug use will get more
drug use and more drug addiction," said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"Many countries, including the U.S. and Mexico, see the drug problem as a
trafficking problem," he said. "But the real problem isn't trafficking, it's
drug use. The costs of drug addiction are staggering."
Mexico has for years blamed Americans for fueling the multibillion-dollar
illegal drug trade with their $10, $50 and $100 drug purchases. One cartoon
here showed Uncle Sam kneeling over a map of the United States and Mexico,
snorting a giant line of cocaine piled along the border.
News of the pending Mexican law spread quickly over the Internet, reaching
the website of High Times, a glossy monthly magazine that features photo
spreads of marijuana from around the world.
"I know I'll be booking my trip as soon as I hear the OK!" wrote "Beefy" to
general agreement among his cyber peers.
Drug use by Mexicans grew as smugglers began receiving payments in drugs
rather than cash from Colombian suppliers, experts say. The drug surplus
triggered more local sales and use.
"There's been a big increase in addiction in recent years," said Mago
Marchina of Clinica Nuevo Ser, a Tijuana drug treatment center.
Reliable figures on how many Mexicans are addicted to drugs are hard to come
by, but Mexico's National Council Against Addictions has said that more than
half of addicts use cocaine, and a third report hard-core marijuana use.
A growing war among rival drug gangs in Mexico - primarily the so-called
Gulf and Sinaloa cartels - has ushered in a new era of brutality, with
torture routine and bodies burned and dismembered.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in the last 18 months in fighting
over smuggling routes to the United States, mostly in border cities,
Acapulco and the capital. Automatic weapons and explosives are common tools;
police and journalists are increasingly frequent targets.
Fox, whose term ends in December and who is barred by law from seeking
reelection, has been considered a strong ally of the U.S. anti-drug effort.
He has said the current drug war was triggered when he began arresting top
leaders, including Osiel Cardenas, who allegedly runs the Gulf cartel from
prison.
In the last year, Fox has called in the army to patrol the border city of
Nuevo Laredo when it became clear that local police were in league with
traffickers. And he has promised to extradite drug smugglers facing trial in
the U.S.
Consequently, many U.S. officials, and Mexicans, are scratching their heads
over the new law.
Mexican Sen. Jorge Zermeno, a member of Fox's National Action Party, spoke
twice in support of decriminalization before the Senate's 53-26 vote Friday
shortly after midnight.
He said the legislation, which Fox first proposed in 2004, was intended to
allow drug possession for bona fide addicts, who would be sent to drug
treatment instead of jail. But the word "consumer" was attached to the bill
and won approval, broadening it to include all adults, he said.
*
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Cecilia Sanchez and Carlos Martinez in The Times' Mexico City Bureau
contributed to this report.
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