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 Editorials | Opinions | May 2006 
For Mexico's President Fox, It's Regular Tourism, ¡Sí!, and "Drug Tourism," ¡No!
 Edward M. Gomez - sfgate.com
| | The Mexican congress's proposed new law would decriminalize the possession of small quantities of now-illegal drugs. (AFP) |
For a moment there, it seemed that Mexico was set to become a "drug tourist's" paradise in the wake of the Mexican congress's passage of proposed new legislation decriminalizing the possession (for personal use) of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, LSD and ecstasy, among other normally illegal substances. Mexican President Vicente Fox had made it known that he intended to sign the bill into law.
Then, this week, Fox made a sudden about-face. The conservative Mexican leader announced that he would not approve the new legislation after all. Many observers in Mexico believe his quick change of position on the proposed, new drug policy was the result of pressure from Washington.
Notimex reported that, according to a U.S. State Department source, the day before the Fox administration announced its new stance, the department's assistant secretary for narcotics had met with the Mexican ambassador in Washington to discuss the proposed new drug-use policy.
Announcing that Fox would reject the proposed new legislation and send it back to Mexican law-makers for revision, his office noted that it was "being sensitive to [the] concerns of diverse sectors of society." The Fox administration's statement made it clear that "the possession and consumption of drugs are and will continue to be crimes."
Proceso, a Mexican newsmagazine, pointed out that Fox's office made no mention of any pressure from Washington that might have affected its decision.
In Mexico, Eliana García, a human-rights coordinator from the left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), a rival of Fox's right-wing National Action Party (PAN), said that, through public forums and consultations with drug experts and state and federal officials, legislators had determined that their proposed new law would not lead to increased drug use. "To the contrary...," García said, "[w]hat we don't want is that you should be hauled away to jail, or that someone should face being extorted [simply] for carrying a marijuana cigarette or a hit of cocaine in his pocket." García urged Fox's government to do a better job of intelligence-gathering in its fight against the activities of drug traffickers, "and not to give in to pressures...from the United States."
The influential, middle-of-the-road Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has criticized Fox's turn-around, too. A PRI official involved with public-security issues said that, if Fox had changed his mind on the proposed new law as a result of U.S. pressure, "or as a result of pressure from conservative groups in Mexico," his action would reflect "mistaken attitudes and a lack of firmness" that would allow "prejudice and ignorance" to triumph - presumably over fairness and understanding toward users of small quantities of drugs.
Back in the U.S., wise-cracking blogger-commentator Paul Bourgeois, writing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, quipped that the new Mexican drug bill, had Fox signed it into law, "could have been a great thing for us." "If drugs are legal and easier to obtain in Mexico, then all of our dopers and criminals would go down there and no longer be our problem," Bourgeois opined. He added: "All we'd have to do is not let them back in...Oops!...I forgot, we really don't have any border controls, do we?" |
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