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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Mexico: Lawmakers continue to push drug bill

    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14532916.htm

    Posted on Tue, May. 09, 2006


    MEXICOLawmakers continue to push drug bill
    Despite the U.S. government's fear that 'drug tourism' could result, lawmakers in Mexico continue to push for a drug decriminalization bill.

    BY IOAN GRILLO
    Associated Press

    MEXICO CITY - Mexican lawmakers pledged Monday to keep pushing for a drug decriminalization bill criticized by the United States, and said they could override President Vicente Fox's veto of the measure.

    Fox sent the proposal, which would drop criminal charges for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, back to Congress last week with suggestions for changes after U.S. authorities warned it could result in ''drug tourism'' to Mexico.

    But Congressional leader Rep. Eliana García said Congress, which approved the bill last month, would only be open to clarifying the law, not changing its spirit.

    ''If the changes [suggested by Fox] are in spirit of the bill, they are welcome,'' García, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, said at a news conference. ''But if they scrap the work we have done during one and a half years, we will have no problem in getting the vote of two-thirds'' needed for an override in the lower house.

    ''The international policy to combat drugs has failed because it has focused on repression and not prevention,'' García said.

    Despite its approval by both of Mexico's houses of Congress, Fox on Wednesday sent the bill back to lawmakers to ask for 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.''

    The move followed pressure from U.S. officials who feared the law's effect on the anti-drug fight and on young Americans traveling to Mexico.

    García said lawmakers still hope to persuade Fox to sign the bill; overriding the veto would require a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the lower house.

    Legislators from all major parties, including Fox's own conservative National Action Party, have voiced support for the proposal, which they say would allow police to focus on going after the big drug dealers and traffickers rather than wasting time prosecuting small-time users.

    The new bill would also empower state and local police -- not just federal officers -- to hunt down dealers, stiffen some penalties and close loopholes that dealers had long used to escape prosecution.

    ''It's a reform to combat drug dealing. That is the principal objective,'' said Rep. Claudia Ruíz Massieu of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has the largest block in both houses.

    However, some legislators have said that Congress may have made a mistake by including a decriminalization of small amounts for all ''consumers,'' instead of just known addicts or first-time offenders, groups that qualify for leniency under current laws.

    The new bill would eliminate criminal penalties against anybody, addict or not, found in possession of 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.''

    The legislation was drawn up with contributions from several government agencies including the health and public safety departments.

    García said it was worrying to see Fox bow to U.S. pressure on the bill. ''We have to solve this problem that is affecting many sections of our society,'' she said.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... s0507.html

    Drug-decriminalization veto protested in Mexico

    Mark Stevenson
    Associated Press
    May. 7, 2006 12:00 AM


    MEXICO CITY - The issue of drug decriminalization split Mexican politics in strange ways Saturday, after President Vicente Fox refused to sign a bill that would have eliminated criminal penalties for small amounts of drugs.

    About 500 protesters held a marijuana smoke-in in Mexico City, and a presidential candidate who visited the demonstration came out in favor of decriminalization. Mexico City's police chief came out against it, and some members of Congress accused Fox of yielding to U.S. pressure to veto the bill.

    "Decriminalization does not create more users . . . we have to decriminalize the discussion of decriminalization," candidate Patricia Mercado of the small Alternative Social-Democratic Party said during a visit to the smoke-in and protest at a park in downtown Mexico City.

    Mercado declined an invitation to "Light up! Light up!" but said she supported decriminalizing marijuana.

    A half-dozen Mexico City police officers confronted the protesters, but the crowd thronged around them shouting, "Take us all, take us all!" and the police retreated.

    Possession of marijuana is a crime, punishable by 10 to 16 months in prison, unless a suspect can claim he is an addict or it is a first offense involving a small amount. But few are prosecuted under the law.

    Protest organizers described comments by U.S. officials asking Mexico to reconsider the bill as "an open violation of Mexico's sovereignty."

    "The president has declared war on (drug) consumers," said Alfonso Garcia, secretary of the Mexican Association for Cannabis Studies, who described the bill Fox sent back to Congress on Wednesday as "a minor advance."

    But the police chief of Mexico's capital - like Mercado, a leftist - said Saturday that he supported Fox's decision not to sign the bill.

    Joel Ortega said it would have made it harder for his officers to fight drug gangs.

    "Imagine . . . that we are doing a raid, we almost have to say, 'Let's see, gentlemen drug traffickers, allow me to weigh the drugs to see if we have the power to arrest you,' " Ortega said at a news conference.

    Conversely, many legislators, including members of Fox's conservative National Action Party, supported the bill. They continued to defend it last week and accused Fox of bowing to U.S. pressure.

    "Unfortunately . . . the president, under pressure from the United States, sent it back to Congress, saying it would 'regularize' drugs, which is not true," said Rep. Marcela Gonzalez Salas of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.

    The measure would have dropped criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0510/p04s01-woam.html

    from the May 10, 2006 edition -

    Debate far from over for Mexico's drug bill
    Lawmakers vowed Monday to pass a bill that drops charges for small amounts of cocaine, marijuana, and other drugs.

    By Danna Harman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

    MEXICO CITY - Welcome to Mexico, a paradise of beaches, Mayan ruins ... and methamphetamines?

    Much to the relief of many in Washington, Mexican President Vicente Fox decided last week not to sign into law a bill that would drop criminal charges for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs.

    But Mexican lawmakers pledged Monday to keep pushing for the decriminalization bill, saying they could override Mr. Fox's veto. The bill has proved controversial, sparking debate in both the US and Mexico over how best to battle drug trafficking and use.

    Fox helped design the bill, and when Mexico's Congress initially passed it at the end of April, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar called it "an advance in combating narcotics trafficking." The reason: it would free up jail space and re-focus funding and manpower currently used to crack down on small-time users on big-time smugglers and dealers who, in the past few years, have turned Mexico into a more dangerous hub in the international drug trade.

    But that was before Washington began raising objections. Officials from the State Department and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) "expressed concern," says Judith Bryan, a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Mexico City, that such a law would both increase local drug consumption and encourage "drug tourism."

    San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders called the idea "appallingly stupid," and warned that it would turn border cities like Tijuana into Mexican versions of Amsterdam, where drug "tourism" rose after marijuana was decriminalized.

    Mexico's Secretary of Public Security Eduardo Medina Mora argues the bill has been sensationalized by the media. Selling drugs or using them in public would remain a crime punishable by jail, and police would still be able to take anyone found using drugs into custody for questioning, he told reporters last week.

    The bill also sets stiffer penalties for trafficking and empowers Mexico's 400,000 local and state police to pursue and arrest street dealers, something that is now the responsibility only of the 21,000-strong federal police force.

    Mexico would not have been the first country to decriminalize drugs. Half a dozen European countries, as well as Colombia, have passed some form of decriminalization law, says Bruce Bagley, a professor of international studies at the University of Miami. Many other countries have decriminalized marijuana. Most US states, by contrast, have much stricter laws.

    "Is decriminalization the way to go? Absolutely," says Mr. Bagley. "The US method of repression does not work. Not only have we failed to reduce drug use, we have filled our jails with prisoners in for drug-related crimes, many of them non- violent - which has a devastating impact on society, especially on the poor."

    Whether diverting resources from prosecuting small-time users to fighting big cartels will help combat the scourge is still unclear - but worth trying, says Jorge Chabat, a Mexican scholar who studies the illegal drug trade at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching, a university in Mexico City.

    "It does not make any sense to put all the addicts or small-time users in jail. Addicts are not criminals and our jails are overwhelmed - so we need to choose who we are going to fight and how," says Mr. Chabat, who says that Fox was wrongly pressured into scrapping the bill by the US.

    As many of the Colombian drug cartels have been dismantled in the past decade, the hub of the drug trade has shifted to Mexico, says Chabat. The US Bureau for International Law Enforcement Affairs claims that as much as 90 percent of the cocaine sold in the US is now smuggled through Mexican territory.

    "Did the fact that Colombia decriminalized drugs make it easier for them to fight the cartels? That is hard to prove," says Bagley. "But they have seen some success there that Mexico might try to follow."

    Critics of decriminalization, meanwhile, argue that turning a blind eye to any drug use only leads to worse problems.

    The Mexican bill would make drug use easier, says Ron Brooks, President of US National Narcotics Officers Association, a coalition representing over 60,000 state narcotics officers. "Your kid goes down to party for a few days over spring break and comes back strung out," says Mr. Brooks, who worries that decriminalization normalizes drug use. "We have 24,000 overdose deaths a year in the US," he notes, arguing that if the bill becomes law, there would be more.

    Tom Riley, ONDCP spokesman, says the Mexican bill is contrary to the prevailing trend against drug decriminalization. "Everyone talks about the Netherlands as an example of somewhere where decriminalization has worked fine - but, in fact, they are rethinking their strategy in response to higher addiction rates," he says. "Soft drug laws lead to more use and more addiction, and no one wants that problem."

    Peter Reuter, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland's Department of Criminology disagrees, arguing that there is no proof leniency affects the number of users. "Italy and Spain have moderately severe drug problems but don't stand out with the highest addiction rates or more drug-related criminality. Switzerland has a higher rate of addiction and has much more conventional policy," he says. "A study has yet to show that decriminalizing drugs has an effect on drug consumption or trafficking."

    • Ms. Harman is Latin America correspondent for the Monitor and USA Today.
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    Our drug laws work so well, huh?
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  5. #5
    mrmiata7's Avatar
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    Who is in control?

    This bill was just an excuse to show the corrupt government of Mexico is unable to address Mexico's serious drug problem. The congress says it would allow police to attack the problem at a larger level. What a joke. Mexico police forces like their government are controlled by the drug cartels and are the most corrupt institutions on earth. What concerns me is El Presidente Vincente Bush's reaction to this; especially if his brother Vincente Fox had signed the bill in it's original form. Knowing this horse's ass, narco-empire, Mexican Mafia and fortune 500 controlled president (Bush) his response probably would have been to shrug his arms and reply we just will have to deal with it. We are in serious trouble, The all out assault on AMerica has begun.

  6. #6
    Senior Member TexasCowgirl's Avatar
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    I really hope it passes. It will just be another solid reason on our side to close that damn border. Not like we need another, but at least we can have another hand to slap on El Presidente's face.
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