Thread: Mexico Legalizes Drug Possession...

Mexico decriminalizes small-scale drug possession

By MARK STEVENSON (AP) – 7 hours ago

MEXICO CITY — Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday — a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers.

Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico's corruption-prone police from extorting casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.

"This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty," said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general's office.

The new law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.

Espino del Castillo says, in practice, small users almost never did face charges anyway. Under the previous law, the possession of any amount of drugs was punishable by stiff jail sentences, but there was leeway for addicts caught with smaller amounts.

"We couldn't charge somebody who was in possession of a dose of a drug, there was no way ... because the person would claim they were an addict," he said.

Despite the provisions, police sometimes hauled in suspects and demanded bribes, threatening long jail sentences if people did not pay.

"The bad thing was that it was left up to the discretion of the detective, and it could open the door to corruption or extortion," Espino del Castillo said.

Anyone caught with drug amounts under the new personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory.

The maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams — the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.

Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate drug addicts and casual users from the violent traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of more than 11,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.

But one expert saw potential for conflict under the new law.

Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said the new law posed "a serious contradiction" for the Calderon administration.

"If they decriminalize drugs it could lead the army, which has been given the task of combating this, to say 'What are we doing'?" he said.

Officials said the legal changes could help the government focus more on big-time traffickers.

Espino del Castillo said since Calderon took office, there have been over 15,000 police searches related to small-scale drug dealing or possession, with 95,000 people detained — but only 12 to 15 percent of whom were ever charged with anything.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD9A763HO0

Drug Cartel is so HAPPY Prisoners will be freed to buy soon? and traffic to America?
More Related
Mexico Legalizes Drug Possession...
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-167943.html

good! now mabe the flow of these drugs north will slow down.let mexico keep thier own nice and high!

Mexico can try to justify this move all they want to try and justify it......it still accomplishes one thing and one thing only.

They've dumped yet another of their problems.....battling the violent cartels......squarely into the laps of the United States.

In fact, it wouldn't shock me one bit if we were to eventually find out that the Mexican government has lost control to the cartels and this "legalization" is nothing more than a cover. After all, there were top officials in Mexico and even within our military and intelligence structure who had been predicting, for months, that the Mexican government was in danger of being overtaken by the cartels.

Either way.......with this legalization move on Mexico's part, that leaves the US as the only bastion of illegality for the cartels to fight.

Just watch........how much cartel violence is going to come this way now?

azwreath: Exactly. We know the truth, don't we. Just yesterday the Justice Department was on the television talking about the drug arrests in the Country that have been under investigation since 1994. Bring me a break....

This will make it a magnet for young kids, or really anyone who does drugs from the U S...It helps their tourism industry a ton...

Its all about the money.

No doubt this is the big plan for the Narth American Union. Soon Obama will ask for the same thing here I guess.

I guess what I really want to get out of this is a response from OUR government over why we have spent so much money and sacrificed lives over stopping the drug flow over the border, just so Mexico can take all that from us and give us the opposite in return?

I want Obama to stop helping Mexico in any way to curb any more drug related problems in Mexico, and we should get all our money back from Mexico too!!!

Tis is nothing more than the Mexican govt. Collapseing under the power of the cartels in my mind!!

Close the south border, now! The rich elitest in the south of border only let people own land for 10 years.

Put military bases along the border. Enough is enough.

This is Calderone's blackmail. Mexico did the same thing to Bush threatening to legalize drugs and he caved trying to push CIR amnesty. Obama has two big irons in the fire right now and he's wont to throw amnesty on this fire right now. Keeping the pressure on him for cap and tax and obamacare is the important thing right now. The impatient ones will turn on him when they don't get their way. We're dealing with a terrible two culture here.