[AGL] Flash: Mexico shows signs of sense

[Harry Edwards]

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  Mexico to decriminalize pot, cocaine and heroin
By Noel Randewich
Fri Apr 28, 6:51 PM ET

Possessing marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime 
in Mexico if the drugs are carried in small amounts for personal use, 
under legislation passed by Congress.

The measure given final passage by senators in a late night session on 
Thursday allows police to focus on their battle against major drug 
dealers, the government says, 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. The measure was 
approved earlier by the lower house.

Under the legislation, 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.

The legislation came as a surprise 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.

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 told Reuters.

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 Sen. Jorge Zermeno of the ruling 
National Action Party.

Fifty-three senators voted for the bill with 26 votes against.

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 analyze 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."