Reporter Sara Miller Llana talks with CSMonitor.com's Pat Murphy about the recent decriminalization of certain drugs in Mexico.
Reporter Sara Miller Llana
Mexico quietly decriminalizes drug use
Now marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and heroin will be tolerated for personal use. It's part of a bid to free up resources and jail space so that authorities can focus efforts on big-time traffickers.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer 08.24.09
MEXICO CITY – In 2006, a Mexico initiative to decriminalize limited personal drug use set off a storm north of the border. The San Diego mayor called it “appallingly stupid.” Mexico was painted as a potential haven for drug tourism, the next Netherlands of Latin America.
The initiative, not surprisingly, quickly died.
Three years later, in the midst of a massive drug war that’s taken more than 11,000 lives and brought the US and Mexico into closer and more costly cooperation, the initiative has quietly become law. And there’s hardly a peep.
Now not just marijuana, but cocaine, LSD, and heroin will be tolerated for personal and limited use. That means about four joints, or half a gram of cocaine, or 50 milligrams of heroin. Bigger quantities, sales, and public consumption are still strictly forbidden.
Officials here say the aim is to free up both resources and jail space so that authorities can focus efforts on big-time traffickers wreaking havoc in Mexico. “This frees us from a flood of small crimes that have saturated our federal government and allows the authorities to go after big criminals,” said Bernardo Espino del Castillo, who works in the attorney general’s office in Mexico.
It also focuses on rehabilitation for repeat drug users, making treatment mandatory for abusers. As we reported earlier this year, the number of addicts in Mexico has grown in just six years by more than 50 percent, from 300,000 to 465,000, according to government statistics.
The law now puts Mexico in a new league of leniency when it comes to drug use. Only Portugal has also legalized a wide range of drugs, Allen St. Pierre, executive director of Norml, a group seeking to legalize marijuana use in the US, told The Houston Chronicle.
Mexico seemed to anticipate a strong reaction from the US, not unlike the one it received in 2006, when President Vicente Fox’s initiative failed.
“This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty,” said Mr. Espino del Castillo. In other words, this is not an effort to draw back tourists – scared away by swine flu and violence – interested in experimenting with meth.
But so far the US has been quiet. During a July visit, US drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, said he would take a “wait-and-see” approach if the law passed.
If US officials were to come down heavily on Mexico, it would be a departure from the praise that has come at every opportunity regarding the fight that Mexico is waging. “We know that Mexican law enforcement authorities are continuing their efforts to target drug traffickers,” Department of Justice spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said Friday. “Our friends and partners in Mexico are waging an historic battle with the cartels, one that plays out on the streets of their communities each day.”
Will the US now follow suit? Highly unlikely. But the new law in Mexico will definitely provide fuel to groups trying to reform US laws, particularly on marijuana use.
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3. TYC | 08.24.09
Time to quit playing Elliott Ness and Al Capone. Time to legalize, regulate, and tax. Allowing drug gangs to control drugs is “appallingly stupid”. Anyway, I wish Prohibitionists all the success of alcohol prohibition.
4. Mrs. Melanie Marshall | 08.24.09
The Cartels are laughing with delight because they know their bloody business is secure. Until we get smart with these needlessly illegal substances that will never go away, cartels will remain 100% in control.
End Drug Prohibition now, please. Alcohol is the most dangerous drug there is, but we would never go back to Alcohol Prohibition. Drug legalization WILL give us a more humane society.
Thank you.
5. Lawrence | 08.24.09
Too little, too late.
The Mexican drug laws are not what is causing the cartels to gain power/money, it is the American drug laws. All this change is going to do is free up a little bit of time from the Mexican police officers.
Heroin has been legal for registered addicts for years now, so this causes little change in that department.
When the elderly start dying off and the baby boomers inherit this country, we will finally start to see change. Many old people simply see marijuana as another drug, same as cocaine or heroin.
The biggest drug problem in this country is pharmaceuticals, yet this goes completely ignored. Maybe it is because the same conservatives demonizing marijuana are the ones popping all the pills?
That’s right, Mr. Limbaugh, I’m pointing my finger at you.
6. Anthony | 08.24.09
Time to wake up America. The War on Drugs has failed. How much longer are we going to live (and pay for) the lie?
7. Publius | 08.24.09
The war on drugs is a war on the Constitution.
It is a war on rationality.
Aside from the violations of persuit of happyness it violates economic sense corrpupts law officials and politicians (like they need any encouragement) The power lust infecting politicians is a narcotic far more dangerous to the safety of man kind then any physical for pleasure material.
If the US government really really really wanted to end the Taliban they would not do a war on drugs there - they would have all crops grown there legalized and withen a year the Taliban would be bankrupt.
But I guess we are supposed to believe the completely inaine fantasy that even though we can’t keep drugs out of our own prisions - we will be able to eradicate them from a country half way around the world loaded with people who hate us…I dont know who is dumber - the politicians who spew that retarted blather or the morons who keep electing them into office.
8. b.g. | 08.25.09
I agree that the war on drugs is pointless. The only smart thing to do now is to take the power out of the cartels hands. The only way to keep people from using dangerous drugs is to educate them on the negative effects they will have on their lives and on their bodies. It is laughable that the Mexican government is just now putting personal use laws on the books, for its law enforcement agencies have been turning a blind eye for years.
9. clb | 08.25.09
Decriminalization permits use but not sales–it punishes suppliers, but why should suppliers stop supplying if the demand is untouched? It is not possible to eradicate, but drug use is highly detrimental to the individual and society–so putting the supply of drugs in the hands of the government or corporations will add more substance abuse and cost more than the so-called drug wars. If illegal drugs are legalized, then why not make every prescription drug over the counter as well? The victims in this are children who are growing up in this drug culture. When movies and music glorify drug use and doctors overmedicate patients and endless drug ads are on TV, what can we expect but a population of drug abusers and addicts?
The goal should be to prevent and minimize drug abuse and control it. Legal alcohol means everybody drinks, 18 million of them alcoholics. Illegal drugs = 2-3 million addicts. Why is legalization then the answer to the drug problem?
10. Brinna Nanda | 08.25.09
Legalization is the answer to the drug problem because what is prohibited cannot be regulated or moderated. Right now, in many areas children find it easier to get their hands on marijuana than alcohol. The proportion of alcoholics to drinkers has not changed through years of prohibition or legality. The proportion of drug addicts to the general population has remained the same regardless of prohibition. Some people will abuse, others act responsibly, but throwing people in prison, ruining their lives, taking away their employment, their children, their property because we want to “protect them” is ludicrous and hypocritical.
11. Free Market Jeff | 08.26.09
When drugs are illegal it makes them scarcer. This makes them more expensive. Most people are not drug users, but those who are will not adjust their consumption due to high prices, especially if they are addicts. Thus prices rise, but demand remains the same. The increased revenue goes to the suppliers, i.e., drug dealers.
The inverse is also true. Legalize drugs and the competition for turf will diminish as profitability diminishes. Money to buy officials, guns, and to fund narco-terrorism in general will be reduced.
Who would support The War on Drugs? Those who receive the bounty directly or through pay offs, and those ignorant of freshman Economics.
In 1976 a fix of heroin cost $40 in the US, but only $2.46 in England (in US dollars) because it was legal in the UK. Tell me, in which country would an addict more need to steal? The demand side should be considered as well. How many drug related crimes could be avoided?
12. ejhickey | 08.26.09
I predict a rise in American tourists traveling to Mexico for drug vacations.
13. Jon Freeberg | 08.27.09
What an incredibly well informed group of people commenting on this subject!
There is no competent argument for the so called war on drugs. It is clearly a war on people that pays huge dividends to the prison industrial complex, polticians, illegal drug cartels, military industrial complex and covert government ops. Iran Contra, Mena AR., Afghanistan, Panama, Columbia, Chinese opium dens etc. etc.
Person by person the world is waking up, as the numbers shift animal magnetism will shift in favor of Truth.
14. Black Jack Shellac | 09.02.09
I agree with all of the other commenters here that the real goal should be legalisation and control of these drugs rather than the lunacy of this never ending war on drugs. But this is the natural (political) first step.
15. Chet Read | 09.02.09
Too right. Those hysterical about banning everything to save the children should also consider the socio-psychological aspect of this issue (relevant for drugs as well as alcohol)- that is, the fairly universal fascination of young people with all things that are forbidden by their parents (or the law in general).
Some of us may recall that it seemed so exciting as a teen to concoct elaborate stories and undertake great adventures just to enjoy a can of beer with our buddies. Take out that psychological aspect of excitement and defiance of parental authority, and pot becomes so, like, whatever.
17. richard potter | 09.02.09
The legalization of the private use of drugs is morally wrong. Attacking drug trafficking at the highest levels would quickly dry up the cash needed to support cartels and organized crime. Interdiction of drug traffic between Latin, Central, and Carribean basin countries along with the recogntion of the socio/economic situation in these contries could prevent a major war from erupting on American streets. Thank you.
18. Alec Dubro | 09.02.09
I’m afraid that by this point, neither legalization nor prohibition will stem the use of drugs. Drugs are nearly as permanent a part of the culture as alcohol. There is no solution. They’re simple one of the conditions under which we live.
As for Mexican decriminalization, I doubt that this new law will reduce police shakedowns of users. Police there have never been too fastidious about the rules of evidence, and 50 milligrams of heroin can magically turn into 100 between the arrest and the station house. So, I wouldn’t go on any drug vacations to Mexico right yet.
20. Jon J | 09.02.09
We don’t have to legalize anything in the US. Mexico has already done that. We can simply watch what happens to them and base our direction on the outcome in five years.
21. Gary Goldbladt | 09.02.09
The only way to break the back of the drug cartels is for the Mexican government to grow, manufacture and distribute the drugs.
22. Carol in Cally | 09.04.09
Thank you everyone for your great insights and comments above. I hope the US will wake up and legalize drugs (just like alcohol) so we can generate much needed tax revenue as well as wipe out cartels. With our economy in such a slump, maybe this is one of the answers to our prayers~
23. PTM | 09.07.09
War on drugs is absurd, I really hope this insanity will end soon, the cost the society pays is enormous. Think of what could be achieved if all the money and man-hours went into local development, education, health-care or science. Think of all those young people who would not end up as criminals spending majority of their lives in jail or killed. Think of all the drug related crimes which would never happen.
If we are rational and have public good on our minds we need to stop this insanity as soon as possible.
24. Bob Stan | 09.19.09
By making marijuana illegal and allowing the consumption of alcohol, the US government is explicitly driving people to use the more dangerous drug, alcohol.
If marijuana is so bad then where are all the instances of people being killed in traffic accidents from smoking marijuana and driving? Obviously if this was happening we would be hearing about it.
Meanwhile, every day, people are dying in alcohol related traffic accidents.
Wake up America nd legalize marijuana and let people use the less dangerous drug, marijuana.
25. RICK MACLEOD | 09.21.09
This will only work for Mexico - if it was all or nothing. Also the major market for Mexican drugs is USA …yes / no ?? if that’s the case then this law basically did nothing except take some burden off Mexico’s drug users (which isn’t a bad thing). I’m a drug user and i say it proud …i’m a father of three, i have a professional degree and work as a professional… i never miss a day of work due to using drugs, i have never had a fight with my wife over drugs. I smoke pot in front of my kids (if outdoors) like any smoker would. …oh ya there is one other thing - i tell my kids the truth.
26. Zach | 09.23.09
One thing that seems to go unnoted in a debate about the War on Drugs is the general knowledge against its propaganda. The more the laws that govern us begin to make sense, the more we will have confidence in our politicians. We always talk about the eradication of drug cartels, but I am of a strong belief that general crime rates will drop as well.
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1. Annah | 08.24.09
It’s a start, but it won’t help much. In fact, “decriminalization” is virtually pointless as it does not address the true problem, which is prohibition itself and the direct and very negative consequences of prohibition. The end users are not the problem, and the reason for that is because it is human nature to take drugs, or to enhance one’s reality with them, so you cannot blame humans for using illegal drugs, nor can you stop them.
The problem is prohibition, which by its very existence created the black market, Mexican Drug Cartels, drug gangs, street dealers, growers, producers, runners, and more. By instilling drug prohibition, governments (especially the USA) have virtually handed over control of the market for these products to people and organizations that are not, and cannot, be regulated, taxed, controlled, or even monitored. This means that not only can the black market set the price of their products, which is directly related to the risk involved (which is raised or lowered by a government’s “get tough” attitudes and incarceration rates) they control what goes into their product. Cannabis is a benign and essentially harmless substance, yet who knows if the cartels are lacing it with something else.
So, as you can see, decriminalization, while helpful to abate user’s feelings of persecution, does nothing to alleviate the real problems of the illicit drug market. And the only thing that will is legalization, taxation, and regulation.
What is interesting about the Mexico decriminalization is that not one single major American news network has mentioned it. Not only that, but the marijuana legalization debate is raging like a wildfire throughout the US and more and more politicians are getting on board with the realization that the only true solution is to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana (if not all of them). This is the only way to bring the cartels to their knees.
Did we learn nothing from alcohol prohibition? It is truly baffling that US politicians are still acting like ignorami on this - the facts are right there in their faces and their constituents and their voters are calling for action, calling for legalization, and yet they sit there like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand. What are they waiting for, Mexican Drug Cartels to invade the US? Oh, wait… they’ve already done that.
Time to wake up America. The War on Drugs has failed. How much longer are we going to live (and pay for) the lie?