Thread: Mexico president following California marijuana vote: state lawmaker

Mexico president following California marijuana vote: state lawmaker

September 16, 2016


Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto delivers a speech to the media
to announce new cabinet members at Los Pinos presidential residence
in Mexico City, Mexico, September 7, 2016. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

(This Sept 15 story corrects "asked" in first paragraph to "raised with" California lawmakers)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has proposed liberalizing his country's drug laws, privately raised with California lawmakers visiting Mexico a state measure to legalize recreational marijuana, a state legislator said on Thursday.

A delegation of California Democratic lawmakers visiting Mexico talked for an hour on Wednesday with Pena Nieto about trade and the state's border with Mexico.

During the meeting, Pena Nieto brought up the November ballot measure without getting into details, California state Senator Ben Allen said in an interview.
"But they're clearly paying close attention," he added.

If California votes to create a legal cannabis market, it would place great pressure on Mexico, which is mired in combating its vast drug-trafficking networks, to follow suit.

There was no mention of the California marijuana initiative in the presidency's report on the meeting, and Pena Nieto's office did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Pena Nieto has said the United States and Mexico should not pursue diverging policies on marijuana legislation and in April proposed a bill to allow Mexicans to carry up to an ounce of marijuana has stalled in Congress.

California's proposal would allow people over 21 years to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for private use and establish a system to license, regulate and tax sales of cannabis.

Recent polls show a majority of Californians favor legalizing marijuana.

Four U.S. states plus the District of Columbia already allow recreational use for adults. Voters in several more states, including the southern border state of Arizona, will consider similar legislation in November.

Long regarded as a conservative on drug policy, Pena Nieto has modified his stance since he took office in 2012, reflecting growing Latin American disenchantment with the war on drugs. A bill to legalize medical marijuana remains in Congress.

Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, said he eventually expects Mexico to be swayed by the fiscal opportunities of regulated cannabis, which he believes could earn California around $1 billion a year in tax revenue.

(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)



https://www.yahoo.com/news/mexico-pr...193601649.html

I'll say one thing for the people of Mexico. A lot of the citizens cannot tolerate drug traffickers, and no matter what the government does or does not do, they take action.

State Marijuana Laws Map - Governing

www.governing.com/.../state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.ht...

Governing
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form. Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use ...

Cannabis in California - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_California

Wikipedia
California was the first state to establish a medical marijuana program, enacted by Proposition 215 in 1996 and Senate Bill 420 in ...

I support legalization of marijuana and hope California and Arizona both pass their proposals in November. This is long over-due. And I hope the other states that have legalized medical marijuana move to expand theirs to include recreational use.

GO STATES!!!

The end of the Drug War will be the death of the drug cartels. The legalization of marijuana is the first step in the end of the Drug War. This will also mean the death of the quack medical marijuana dispensaries.

The legalization of marijuana also means the death of the whole marijuana subculture which owes its vitality to its outlaw status. Marijuana consumption will go down as commercial production and distribution take over.

The next thing to confront and destroy is the use of cocaine. This will be a tougher job to confront because cocaine is a more dangerous drug that is physically addictive and has lethal dosages.

One way to deal with it the same way that marijuana is being dealt with would be legalize growing it and distributing it in leaf form. Coca plants could be legal to grow and coca leaf could be legal to distribute, but processing into cocaine and distributing the same could still be a felony.

Heroin can not be dealt with the same way exactly because the raw extract of the opium poppy is still dangerous. It is a proven plague distributed in this form even when not processed into heroin. Growing the poppy itself should still be legal but distributing the unprocessed resin should still be a felony. One obstacle to distribution for a locally grown poppy is the need for cheap labor, preferably child labor, as found in Afghanistan. We don't have the social environment for cheap harvesting of opium. If poppy could be grown locally legally, then even the criminal distribution of same would be a blow against the international trade in heroin. Of course processing opium into heroin would be a serious felony.

Cut down on repeat offenders.

Indonesia executes drug smugglers by firing squad - Al Jazeera English

www.aljazeera.com/.../indonesia-executes-drug-smugglers-firing-squad-150...

Al Jazeera

Indonesia has executed eight out of nine drug convicts by firing squad despite last-ditch appeals by Australia's foreign minister for a stay of ...

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Cut down on repeat offenders.

"Indonesia executes drug smugglers by firing squad - Al Jazeera English

www.aljazeera.com/.../indonesia-executes-drug-smugglers-firing-squad-150...

Al Jazeera

Indonesia has executed eight out of nine drug convicts by firing squad despite last-ditch appeals by Australia's foreign minister for a stay of ..."

You might also have mentioned any number of other Muslim countries that execute people for drug offenses. But no fool wants to live like they do in Muslim countries except Muslims. They also execute people for witchcraft.

Fourteen, including America and Cuba, have the death penalty on the books for drug traffickers but do not apply it in practice. Only in six countries—

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore—are drug offenders known to be routinely executed, according to HRI's most recent analysis.Apr 28, 2015

Which countries have the death penalty for drug smuggling?

www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/.../economist-explains-28The Economist

Countries that apply capital punishment for drugs[edit]

Country	Charge(s)
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Brunei
China
Cuba
Egypt
India	Option when second conviction for drug trafficking in quantities specified.[1]
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Laos
Malaysia	[3]
Morocco
North Korea
Oman
Qatar
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabia ranks third in the world for the most executions. 43 percent of those executed in 2015 had been convicted of smuggling drugs, ranging from heroin to marijuana.[4]
Singapore	see Misuse of Drugs Act (Singapore)
Somalia
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sudan
Taiwan
Thailand
United Arab Emirates
United States	Very large quantities or mixtures of heroin, cocaine, ecgonine, phencyclidine (PCP), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana, or methamphetamine.[5][6][7] The United States Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Louisiana struck down capital punishment for crimes that do not result in the death of a victim, but left open the possibility for "offenses against the State" – including crimes such as "drug kingpin activity" (and treason and espionage).[8][9]
Vietnam
Yemen
Zimbabwe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capita...ug_trafficking

Capital punishment in Mexico - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Mexico Wikipedia

Capital punishment in Mexico was officially abolished in 2005, having not been used in civil cases since 1937, and in military cases since 1961.‎
History · ‎International relations · ‎See also · ‎Notes


Support for death penalty climbs in Mexico amid murders - USA Today

www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/.../mexico-death-penalty.../4817247...
USA Today
Jan 24, 2014 - If many people in Mexico had their way, the death penalty would be an option to deal with murderers ...