Mexico Decriminalizes Low-Level Possession

Controversial Law Allows Small Amounts of Marijuana, Cocaine and Heroin

(AP)  Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging free government treatment for drug dependency.

The law defines "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamines. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution when the law goes into effect on Friday.

Anyone caught with drug amounts under the personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory - although the law does not specify penalties for noncompliance.

In 2006, the U.S. government publicly criticized a similar bill. Then-President Vicente Fox sent that law - which did not have a mandatory treatment provision - back to Congress for reconsideration.

The maximum amount considered to be for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams of marijuana - the equivalent of two or three joints - or a half-gram of cocaine. The limit for methamphetamine is 40 milligrams, and 0.015 milligrams of LSD.

The law was approved by Congress before it recessed in late April, and President Felipe Calderon - who is leading a major offensives against drug cartels - waited most of the summer before enacting it.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Marijuana Nation

Calderon's original proposal would have required first-time detainees to complete treatment or face jail time. But the lower house of Congress, where Calderon's party was short of a majority, weakened the bill.

Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate between addicts or casual consumers and the violent drug traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of over 11,000 people during Calderon's term. And in the face of growing domestic drug use, Mexico has increased its focus on prevention and drug treatment.

Sen. Pablo Gomez of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party praised the legislation: "This law achieves the decriminalization of drugs, and in exchange, offers government recovery treatment for addicts."

Previously, all drug possession was punishable by stiff jail sentences, with some leeway for those considered addicts and caught with smaller amounts. In practice, relatively few people were prosecuted and sentenced to jail for small-time possession.

While the United States openly expressed concern about the 2006 law, this time around it has been more circumspect.

Asked about the new law in July, U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said he would adopt a "wait-and-see attitude."

"If the sanction becomes completely nonexistent I think that would be a concern, but I actually didn't read quite that level of de facto (decriminalization) in the law," said Kerlikowske, who heads the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Whether the law's proposed sanctions "are actually enough or not, I'm not sure," he said.

[norcal441]

Quotes from Darryl Inaba

Pharm.D. Director of the Haight-Ashbury Detoxification, Rehabilitation, and Aftercare Clinic / CNS 20040115

"Marijuana is a substance that contains up to 360 active brain chemicals in every variety a person smokes. We found that just one of those chemicals, Delta-9 THC, thought to be the most potent and causing the greatest amount of brain effects, is altered by the liver. The liver tries to destroy this drug and get rid of it but in the process, it actually creates 60 or more new drugs that are active in the brain. So marijuana is a multitude of drugs."

"There is marijuana growing everywhere with a very high potency of 14-20% THC. To fully understand importance of this, we must realize that people who smoked in the 1960s thought marijuana was a benign drug. Smoking one joint today is the equivalent of smoking about 14 of those joints from the '60s. Thus, we have a much greater concern about the health consequences of today's marijuana."

"The big problem we see at the Haight-Ashbury Clinic is that the potent form of marijuana today is causing a lot more problems than we saw in the 1960s. I never treated a single self-admitted marijuana addict in the Clinic from the early '60s through the mid-'80s. However, by the late-1980s we started seeing people coming in saying, "Help me. I want to stop smoking pot. It is causing me to have memory problems. Causing me to be too spaced out. Not to function in my work. I can't complete tasks. It's causing me to be sick in the morning and cough. I have withdrawal symptoms. I want to stop and I can't stop." We now have at our program in San Francisco about 100 new patients every month who are in treatment specifically for marijuana addiction."

[steve54z]

Cannabis is a perfectly legal substance. Federal and state laws only limit possession and sale of potent weed. THC laws apply to extremely strong plant. Every American state should allow the vending of cannabis. The herb provides a soothing and relaxing sensation.

[sugar_maple]

The problem stems from Mexico's neighbors... us the United State of America. We create the greatest market for marijuana in the world. How can our leaders keep ignoring the fact that Americans are ready to legalize, regulate and finally CONTROL marijuana? Dick and Nancy never did anything positive besides create a foundation that has keep many Americans from achieving the American dream.

This law has not and will not change a single thing that will happen in Mexico. America needs to wake the heck up and look at itself.

[Kyle1965]

edward1975-2009 said:

"...[pot] has been proven to be a gateway drug..."

Where is this proof, Edward? All we have is speculation, correlation not causation. Yeah, most cocaine addicts smoked marijuana before they tried cocaine. So what? Most of them drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes too before they even tried marijuana. In fact, the data shows that people who drink and smoke are several times more likely to try cocaine than people who do not drink or smoke. Do cigarettes and beer make people want to do cocaine? Or could it be that that goody-two-shoes types who won't even try alcohol or tobacco are just not the types of people who would do a drug like cocaine, but people who gravitate toward things like alcohol and tobacco are more likely to be the types who would smoke pot and maybe even try other drugs? There is not one shred of proof that there is something special about marijuana, some chemical property, that makes people who try it want to try other drugs. It's not even the first intoxicant most people try. It's the first illegal intoxicant most people will try but that's just because it is perceived as the least dangerous and it is the most common and most easily available of the illegal drugs.

Using marijuana does open up the gateway to the black market for illegal drugs though where all the other illegal drugs are sold and to the illegal drug using crowd. There are many millions of participants in the black market for illegal drugs, but most of them are there because that is where the pot is bought and sold. People that smoke pot are going to run into the other illegal drugs if they mess with it for any length of time. Often the meth and cocaine or whatever is coming from the same people up the line as the pot. Drug trafficking organizations tap pot sellers to move their other drugs. What's a pot smoker going to do when his pot dealer offers him cocaine? He's breaking the law too so he's not likely to go tell the cops that his pot dealer is offering him cocaine.

That's just one more good reason why we need to have pot going through licensed shops similar to liquor stores. Liquor stores don't sell cocaine or meth or heroin. Most participants in the black market for illegal drugs are just there because that's where the pot is bought and sold, so that black market would lose most of its participants. Millions fewer people would be involved with the black market for illegal drugs and without all the pot sellers to tap to move their other drugs and the millions of pot smokers who will keep their mouths shut about the hard drug dealing, drug trafficking organizations are going to have a harder time getting their much more addictive and destructive drugs out to end consumers.

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

by edward1975-2009 August 21, 2009 10:26 AM EDT
You're an idiot, it has been proven to be a gateway drug,

=====================================

You're absolutely correct! It's been proven to be a gateway drug for much harder substances...like tobacco and alcohol.

[norcal441]

"Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate between addicts or casual consumers"

Mexico has forgotten the reason these substances are illegal in the first place is because they are addictive and they turn "casual consumers" into addicts, which invites violence.

Mexico, How many politicians, cops and private citizens have been brutally murdered by your drug cartel? How many beheadings have occurred in the last 2 years? This change in your drug laws dishonors all those who have given so much, even their lives, to fight Mexico's drug problem.

Mendocino County, California slacked its drug laws and drugies came from all over the world and ruined the place. Now maybe they'll all move to Mexico.

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

by norcal441 August 21, 2009 10:11 AM EDT
Mexico is soon going to regret this action.
=============================

Only if there's a shortage on rolling papers.

[norcal441]

Mexico is soon going to regret this action.

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

One toke over the line sweet Jesus
One toke over the line
Sittin' downtown in a railway station
One toke over the line

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

But if you give me weed, whites and wine
and you shoe me a sign...

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

by babooph August 21, 2009 8:00 AM EDT
As I can only speak for myself,I know of not a single NON-USER who would start if this trash was legal by the ton.
=================

Either you don't know a lot of people or you make the ones you do know extremely paranoid....or they're all 70+ years old. At least ONE of your acquaintances must be the least bit curious.

[babooph]

I feel I know many,in many nations,so I must be making them very paranoid-thank you for bringing that to my attention -how did you know that ?I will look out for that curious individual I must know too,but is curiosity bad ?Now I feel I may know you-are you paranoid ?

[toddlarado]

Obama said that we need to be on the same page as Mexico with the War on drugs. Well, I think we need to change our page now as well. It will be easy Legalizing Weed in America considering the majority American voters now believe Marijuana should be legalized anyway.

[robinspp]

If someone wants to take drugs, they should be allowed. It is not the government responsibility to chase after people for their eating, drinking, and smoking.

[johnbrown8888]

America's corporate masters will never allow this here, because they can't control it and make money off it.

From drug possession to gun possession to debt slavery, the corporate masters, so well represented by Bushit and the Repigs, hate the idea of people having freedom.

And sadly, sadly, Obama seems to be drinking the same Kool-aid.

Obama, we didn't vote for just another corporate shill. Wake up and smell the coffee (a drug).

[anticristvs]

Addiction is a Disease of the Brain,
I reject the Notion of Temptation via a clown with a pitchfork.
We treat Heart Disease
We treat Kidney Disease, Diabetes, Etc.
I cant wait to hear the Fearmongering the Pat Robertsons will
spew over fear of loosing profits over this as well.

[micheleisfree]

Why is Mexico--MEXICO!--ahead of the US in common sense about drugs? Jail never helped an addict get off junk. Herion is rampant in prisons. Pot has never killed a human being.

The United States of America must take the lead again in common sense. We lost it when this stupid, idiot, BS war on drugs the Big Pharma manipulated the Reagans into starting.

Don't think the Bushes weren't the main drivers. They sit on the board of Ely Lilly, one of the biggest pharmaceutical makers on the planet. They don't want you growing a plant in your backyard that can treat so many illnesses. They'd rather hook you on their 'legal' and 'safe' drugs all the way to your grave, picking your pocket all along the way. There are more Rx addicts out there than street drug addicts!

The Bushes have been doing this country harm for nearly 30 years now. Why can't we charge these people with their crimes? They have brought the USA very low.

[robinspp]

I strongly support you.

[pensacola8-2009]

Taking the profitability out of selling drugs is simple. Make it legal. The USA learned that when they finally ended prohibition. Maybe citizens of this nation forgot that lesson in the US history. Just after weman got their right to vote, a massive movement swelled that outlawed alcohol. When that happened, the cost went up, and organized crime took up the distribution, because citizens never stopped buying it. Finally, the violence became so great, and legislators realized they had created a cardboard cage for a wild bull with a senseless constitutional amendment and repealed it with another constitutional amendment.

When the prohibition era ended, the violence of organized crime dampened back down.

Baby boomers may recall the famous hit song from 1973, The Night Chicago Died, which accounts the difficulties that police and their families had surviving the prohibition era.

President Calderon is an effective and resilient leader. His political party didn't sponsor the bill in this form, but in light of the 11,000 deaths from his war on drugs, it was clear that something had to be done, or the death count would become the end of his party's political influence.

I accept legal drug use far more easily than expending more taxes to incarcerate violators. 95% of inmates are there in this country for drug charges. We can't afford the taxes needed to Police drugs, anymore.

The move in Mexico is a move forward that should be also pursued in this country. I am not a drug user, but I have compassion for convicted users and victims of crime created from it's current illegal status, and I can't afford higher taxes to control it.

[anticristvs]

Mexico tried to pass this During the Fox administration
but SHRUB and Co. threw a fit and strongarmed the PAN
into sending it back to Congress where it sat for years.
For a nation that is run by UltraConservatives
it truly is progressive in scope.
This is one law which i agree with 100%
now i can visit my secret Peyote patch without looking over my shoulder.....

[Benton09]

The people that make the laws in the U. S. judge marijuana as bad and not profitable for the government. You could just grow your own. They'll keep it the way it is while they continue to drink alcohol, which causes more problems than anything. Hypocrisy. Moderation is the key to everything, but people are too stupid in this country to figure that out. 3 college degrees does not make you pass "Common Sense".

[babooph]

As I can only speak for myself,I know of not a single NON-USER who would start if this trash was legal by the ton.