It's legal in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Mexicans would be allowed to possess small amounts of
cocaine, heroin, even ecstasy for their personal use under a bill
approved by lawmakers that some worry could prove to be a lure to young
Americans.

The bill now only needs President Vicente Fox's signature to become
law and that does not appear to be an obstacle. His office said that
decriminalizing drugs will free up police to focus on major dealers.

"This law gives police and prosecutors better legal tools to combat
drug crimes that do so much damage to our youth and children," said
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar.

The Senate approved the bill Friday in the final hours of its closing
session. Mexico's lower house had already endorsed the legislation.

The measure appeared to surprise U.S. officials. State Department
spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said the department was trying to get
"more information" about it. One U.S. diplomat, who requested anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said "we're still
studying the legislation, but any effort to decriminalize illegal drugs
would not be helpful."

Some worried the law would increase drug addiction in Mexico and cause
problems with the United States. Millions of American youths visit
Mexico's beach resorts and border towns each year.

"A lot of Americans already come here to buy medications they can't get
up there ... Just imagine, with heroin," said Ulisis Bon, a drug
treatment expert in Tijuana, where heroin use is rampant.

In off-the-record chats and through their communications with U.S.
officials, Mexican officials tried to depict the drug bill as a simple
clarification of existing laws. But the changes are clear.

Currently, Mexican law leaves open the possibility of dropping charges
against people caught with drugs if they can prove they are drug
addicts and if an expert certifies they were caught with "the quantity
necessary for personal use."

The new bill drops the "addict" requirement, allows "consumers" to have
drugs, and sets out specific allowable quantities, which do not appear
in the current law.

Those quantities are sometimes eye-popping: Mexicans would be allowed
to posses 2.2 pounds of peyote, the button-sized hallucinogenic cactus
used in some Indian religious ceremonies.

Police would no longer bother with possession of up to 25 milligrams of
heroin, 5 grams of marijuana (about one-fifth of an ounce, or about
four joints), or 0.5 grams of cocaine - the equivalent of about 4
"lines," or half the standard street-sale quantity.

The law lays out allowable quantities for a large array of other drugs,
including LSD, MDA, MDMA (ecstasy, about two pills' worth), and
amphetamines.

However the bill stiffens penalties for trafficking and possession of
drugs - even small quantities - by government employees or near
schools, and maintains criminal penalties for drug sales.

Sales of all those drugs would remain illegal under the proposed law,
unlike in the Netherlands, where the sale of marijuana for medical use
is legal and it can be bought with a prescription in pharmacies.

And while Dutch authorities look the other way regarding the open sale
of cannabis in designated coffee shops - something Mexican police
seem unlikely to do - the Dutch have zero tolerance for heroin and
cocaine.

Sen. Miguel Angel Navarro of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party
argued against the bill. "This authorizes the consumption of opium,
morphine, heroin, cocaine, and a variety of drugs that can only be
bought illicitly."

Roman Catholic Bishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago, president of the
Mexican Council of Bishops, also expressed concern.

"It's not by legalizing the possession or use of drugs that drug
trafficking is going to be combatted," the bishop told reporters, "and
that's why the government should be cautious about implementing this
measure."

The law comes at a time of heightened tensions over a U.S. proposal for
immigration reform, including legalization of many of America's
estimated 11 million undocumented migrants.

A demonstration by thousands of Mexican workers Friday to promote union
solidarity turned into a protest against America's vast influence on
the nation's economy, with many protesters saying they will take part
in a boycott of U.S. products next week. The proposed boycott is timed
to coincide with Monday's "Day Without Immigrants" protest in the U.S.,
aimed at pushing Congress to approve the immigration reform.

Ethan Nadelmann, director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance,
said Mexico's bill removed "a huge opportunity for low-level police
corruption." Mexican police often release people detained for minor
drug possession, in exchange for bribes.

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