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Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroin

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 04:17:19 PM EST
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The Mexican Congress has passed legislation decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs

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 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.

Also decriminalized: small amounts of LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote.

Smart move. The U.S. should take a look at doing the same. For those of you fluent in Spanish, here is the text of the new law.

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    Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroin | 12 comments (12 topical)
    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 04:58:01 PM EST
    Cabo sounds better every day...

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#2)
    by lilybart on Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 06:43:37 PM EST
    NO. This is not good. How does it make sense for me to have marijuana legally, but it is a crime for the person who sold it to me? This is just the fundies and abortion laws. Prosecute the doctor, not the woman. And they RAISED the penalties for the sellers. And pot should not be in the same category as the other drugs. It might be better for the people the cops are harrassing for their FREE WILL choice to take a mood-altering substance, but it is a twisted message. But maybe in the long run, people will see that nothing bad happened when they allowed people to legally use a drug and that will change it all someday. sigh

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#3)
    by squeaky on Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 07:27:34 PM EST
    It does seem as if growing MJ for personal use should be legal. It would cut out the dealer; With the increase of penalty for a relatively small amount of drugs I would imagine that dealers profits will go up, as users will return more often and pay more than they would if they could buy a larger quantity for personal use. OscarWild the TL reader posted a link in another thread explaining GB's approach which is modeled after the Netherlands's system. It makes more sense than Mexico's plan at least going by the little bits these two articles report. Dutch model for UK drug laws At least Mexico is moving in the right direction. America's drug laws are a joke. It is obvious to all that there has been no change in drug use or drug flow since the WOD. Billions have been spent lining the wrong people's pockets. That should be a crime.

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#4)
    by fafnir on Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 07:29:06 PM EST
    Interesting. There is hope for that negligent bunch. Perhaps the Mexican government will use their common wealth for the common good to create employment opportunities for their citizens.

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#5)
    by squeaky on Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 10:26:29 PM EST
    This years numbers for the WOD. The utter and vast waste is alarming. War on Drugs clock

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 10:47:34 PM EST
    Half a gram of cocaine considered the limit on personal use? Less than a quarter ounce of pot considered too much for anyone but a drug trafficker to carry? Pretty weak

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Apr 29, 2006 at 10:36:17 AM EST
    well yes, after all that is what the drug dealers in mexico city are all about, and understand bush loves Fox and drug dealers.

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#8)
    by Edger on Sat Apr 29, 2006 at 11:04:57 AM EST
    Squeaky - It is obvious to all that there has been no change in drug use or drug flow since the WOD. Billions have been spent lining the wrong people's pockets. That should be a crime. It should be, I agree. The reason drug use is illegal is so that the billions spent on it will be lining the wrong peoples pockets?

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#9)
    by aahpat on Sun Apr 30, 2006 at 12:16:53 PM EST
    Mexico to Decriminalize Some Drug Use I linked several recent stories about law enforcement calls for decrim. Scotland and in the U.S. itself.

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 30, 2006 at 06:46:54 PM EST
    This sounds like ramping up the drug laws to me. 500mg of coke seems like an awful small amount to me (I thought it was sold by the gram, but then again I've never bought it). If they raise the sentences for amounts that the average drug-user would buy or comsume at one time, then decriminalizing smaller amounts won't necessarily be a good thing. Suppose that it's legal to have an eigth of a pill of MDMA but dealers usually sell whole pills. If they toughen penalties on whole pills, it seems like they've ipso facto toughened penalities on just about everyone.

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Apr 30, 2006 at 08:30:50 PM EST
    I think the drug legalization south of the border is likely to cause major problems because of the current border situation. I've just written my thoughts about the issue: http://jeffslade.blogspot.com. It's well known the amount of crime that follows drugs. Why we haven't done something about the border by now is beyond me.

    Re: Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroi (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue May 02, 2006 at 11:50:40 AM EST
    this legislation is definitely a step in the right direction. the wod has failed everywhere, and has been an astronaumical amount of waste. we could have been directing more monies toward treatment, education, etc., and this is opening the door to the correct approach to drug problems, recreational use, and drug addiction. half a gram of cocaine is a ridiculous amount, but at least mexico has done something useful like columbia did in '94, and the netherlands has recently. california, oregon, etc. have been role models in the decrim process and hopefully other states will follow mexico's fine example. obvioisly there is a problem with the law because it makes it illegal to sell, but in a utilitarian way this law makes sense because it will get the innocent people out of jail.

    Mexico to Decriminalize Pot, Cocaine and Heroin | 12 comments (12 topical)