Mexico To Legalize 'Personal'
Pot, Cocaine &
Heroin
By Noel Randewich
4-29-6
- MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Possessing marijuana, cocaine and
even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if they are in small
amounts for personal use under new reforms passed by Congress that
quickly drew U.S. criticism.
-
- The measure given final passage 53-26 by
senators in a late night session on Thursday is aimed at letting police
focus on their battle against major drug dealers, and President Vicente
Fox is expected to sign it into law.
-
- "This law provides more judicial tools
for authorities to fight crime," presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar
said on Friday.
-
- He said the reforms, which were proposed
by the government and approved earlier this week by the lower house of
Congress, made laws against major traffickers "more severe."
-
- The legislation came as a shock to
Washington, which counts on Mexico's support in its war against drug
smuggling gangs who move massive quantities of cocaine, heroin,
marijuana and methamphetamines through Mexico to U.S. consumers.
-
- "I would say any law that decriminalizes
dangerous drugs is not very helpful," said Judith Bryan, spokeswoman for
the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. "Drugs are dangerous. We don't think it
is the appropriate way to go."
-
- She said U.S. officials were still
studying the reforms, under which police will not penalize people for
possessing up to 5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of opium, 25 milligrams
of heroin or 500 milligrams of cocaine.
-
- People caught with larger quantities of
drugs will be treated as narcotics dealers and face increased jail terms
under the plan.
-
- The legal changes will also
decriminalize the possession of limited quantities of other drugs,
including LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote -- a
psychotropic cactus found in Mexico's northern deserts.
-
- Fox has been seen as a loyal ally of the
United States in the war on drugs, but the reforms could create new
tensions.
-
- A delegation from the U.S. House of
Representatives visited Mexico last week and met with senior officials
to discuss drug control issues, but was told nothing of the planned
legislative changes, said Michelle Gress, a House subcommittee counsel
who was part of the visiting team. "We were not informed," she
said.
-
- HARDENED CRIMINALS
-
- Hundreds of people, including many
police officers, have been killed in Mexico in the past year as drug
cartels battle for control of lucrative smuggling routes into the United
States.
-
- The violence has raged mostly in
northern Mexico but in recent months has spread south to cities like
vacation resort Acapulco.
-
- Under current law, it is up to local
judges and police to decide on a case-by-case basis whether people
should be prosecuted for possessing small quantities of drugs, a source
at the Senate's health commission told Reuters.
-
- "The object of this law is to not put
consumers in jail, but rather those who sell and poison," said Senator
Jorge Zermeno of the ruling National Action Party.
-
- Hector Michel Camarena, an opposition
senator from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, warned that although
well intentioned, the law may go too far.
-
- "There are serious questions we have to
carefully analyse so that through our spirit of fighting drug dealing,
we don't end up legalizing," he said. "We have to get rid of the concept
of the (drug) consumer."
-
- Additional reporting by Anahi
Ram
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