Mexico To Decriminalize Possession Of Recreational Drugs

Posted on May 3, 2006

Well, I have to admit that I sure didn't see that one coming. Mexico President Vicente Fox will sign a bill that will legalize the posession of a whole slew of recreational drugs including cocaine, marijuana, LSD, opium, heroin, amphetamines, methamphetamines. and peyote.

Selling those drugs or using them in public will still be illegal, and the amounts one can possess are small. Except for the peyote: you get 2+ lbs of that. (Having never smoked peyote I have absolutely no idea if that's a lot of peyote or not. It certainly sounds like enough peyote to get an entire fraternity high). The legislature said that the goal of the bill is to help the government fight drug trafficking by concentrating on the drug dealers and not on the individual who likes to blow a few rails of coke on Friday night. Needless to say, everyone from the mayor of San Diego to concerned parents are absolutely flabbergasted by the move.

[T]he per-person amounts approved for possession by anyone 18 or older could easily turn any college party into an all-nighter: half a gram of coke, a couple of Ecstasy pills, several doses of LSD, a few marijuana joints, a spoonful of heroin, 5 grams of opium and more than 2 pounds of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus. The law would be among the most permissive in the world, putting Mexico in the company of the Netherlands. Critics, including U.S. drug policy officials, already are worrying that it will spur a domestic addiction problem and make Mexico a narco-tourism destination. Even the Netherlands, famous for coffeehouses that sell small quantities of potent marijuana and hashish, forbids the possession and sale of narcotics. Colombia allows personal use of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, but not LSD or PCP.
Selling drugs or using them in public still would be a crime in Mexico. Anyone possessing drugs still could be held for questioning by police, and each state could impose fines even on the permitted quantities, the bill stipulates. But it includes no imprisonment penalties. Lawmakers who voted for decriminalization, some of whom have expressed surprise over the details of the bill, said it would for the first time empower local police to make drug arrests and allow law enforcement in general to focus on intercepting large drug shipments and major traffickers. The bill also would stiffen penalties for selling drugs near schools and authorize state and local police to detain users to check whether amounts were over the legal limit.
"The law constitutes an important step forward by the Mexican state in its battle against drug dealing," said Eduardo Medina Mora, secretary of public security and Mexico's top law enforcement officer. Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Tuesday that Fox would sign the measure, calling it an important tool in the fight against drug trafficking. Fox has avoided public comments on the bill and did not attend a news conference about it Tuesday.
Since the vote by Congress last week, lawmakers have said they are unsure who amended the bill, originally aimed at legalizing possession of small quantities of drugs among addicts, to make it apply to all "consumers." The Bush administration is refraining from public criticism of Mexico. But in private meetings Monday with Mexican officials in Washington, U.S. officials tried to discourage passage of the law, U.S. Embassy officials here said.

Vicente Fox won't talk about it and refused to show up at a press conference to discuss it, which is typical of him. On the bright side, if you can do methamphetamines in Mexico, maybe the U.S. government will stop trying to hide my Sudafed behind the counter at CVS so that I can't start a crystal meth lab in my garage. Allergy season is here, after all.