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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2006 
Mexican Drug-Use Bill to be Toughened
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News
| | Marijuana burns after being seized by Mexican army troops in the mountains surrounding Chilpancingo, the capital of the Mexican state of Guerrero. Police and business owners from Mexico's beaches to border cities worried that a measure passed to decriminalize possession of cocaine, heroin and other drugs could attract droves of tourists solely looking to get high. (Photo/John Moore) |
Mexico City – Stung by opposition to a bill that would permit the possession of small quantities of narcotics, a top Mexican senator said yesterday the legislation will be toughened to reassure critics that Mexico is not opening its doors to drug users.
President Vicente Fox's government has been bombarded with questions over the past five days from U.S. and Mexican officials who worry that Mexico is backing away from drug enforcement.
Karen Tandy, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, met yesterday in Mexico City with Public Security Minister Eduardo Medina-Mora.
Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy called Medina-Mora to express his concern.
Also, U.S. officials met with representatives of the Fox government in Washington on Monday and “urged them to clarify the law so it would not make it attractive to those who would go to Mexico to use drugs,” said Judith Bryan, press attache for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar said yesterday that Fox planned to sign the bill.
Drug limits
President Vicente Fox has said he will sign legislation passed by Mexico's Congress limiting the amount of drugs one can possess. (However, the bill may be amended.) A sampling of the maximum allowable drug quantities:
• Heroin: 25 milligrams
• Marijuana: 5 grams
• Cocaine: 500 milligrams
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, who called Friday's 53-26 Senate vote “appallingly stupid,” met yesterday with Luis Cabrera, the Mexican consul general in San Diego.
“I frankly and openly told him we were surprised,” Cabrera said. “It was a bit premature to make all these judgments.”
But Sanders' spokesman, Fred Sainz, said: “We remain incredibly concerned. If passed, this would be a law enforcement problem for our county, a judicial problem for our county and a public-health emergency for our county.”
Sen. Jorge Zermeño, a member of Fox's National Action Party who heads the Senate's justice committee, said the controversy boils down to one word – “user.”
“What generated all this confusion and what distorted the fundamental objective of the law was that the legislators added the word 'user,' ” Zermeño said. “We are going to present a modification to this reform to eliminate the confusion.”
The current criminal code allows judges to waive jail time for people who can prove they are addicts and possess drugs “for personal use.” But the law does not specify the amount of drugs a person can carry, placing the decision in the hands of police and prosecutors.
The new bill is aimed at clarifying possession for personal use while at the same time cracking down on small-time dealers, Zermeño said.
“The objective is not to send drug users to jail,” Zermeño said. “The objective is to jail those who sell, those who traffic, those who enrich themselves, those who poison others.
“Now, it looks to everyone like we are legalizing, that we are authorizing people to carry these quantities of drugs because they are users. We have to eliminate the word 'user' so that only those people who can show that they have an addiction, who have a medical prescription, can possess these quantities.”
The bill also gives new authority to local and state law enforcement to arrest drug dealers. Currently, only federal law enforcement can arrest people on drug charges.
“With this reform, more people go to jail,” said Luis Javier Algorri Franco, Tijuana's minister of security.
Medina-Mora said the law “constitutes an indisputable advance in the efforts of the Mexican government to fight small-scale trafficking and drug addiction.”
Small-scale trafficking is now one of the biggest threats to public security, he said. Mexico's youths and children are consuming drugs at an alarming pace, with per-capita use growing at an annual rate of 20 percent over the past 10 years.
As the demand for cocaine has declined in the United States, more of the drug is being sold by cartels in Mexico, Medina-Mora said. Sales of hard drugs have fallen so dramatically that the cartels earned more money last year from marijuana than from cocaine, he added.
But he insisted that Mexico will not become a playground for the international drug users.
“They will not find in our country a paradise for illegal activities,” he said. “Mexico is not, has not been, and will not be a refuge for anybody who wants to come to our country to consume drugs.
“With all due respect to the mayor of San Diego, our youths, our children are just as much of a concern for us as the young people who visit our country.”
But Sainz said yesterday, “We believe that the fact that it remains illegal to sell drugs, but it would be legal to possess them, is a distinction without difference.”
Sainz and San Diego's director of binational affairs, Alejandra Gavaldón, who both speak Spanish, read the Mexican legislation Monday.
They were disturbed that the bill would allow some users to possess small quantities of marijuana, Ecstasy, cocaine and even heroin.
“Let's be truthful: 'Small quantities' is a diplomatic nicety that is fairly transparent,” Sainz said.
But Cabrera said the law does not mean that someone found with a small quantity of drugs will not go through the legal system.
“This doesn't mean that a person won't be brought to a prosecutor or judge,” he said. “A person found with a certain amount below (the threshold) will be sent to a prosecuting agent.”
Cabrera said prosecutors will make individual decisions in these minor drug cases as to what is the appropriate punishment. A fine could be levied, or the person could be sent to jail for a few days. If the person is an addict, he or she could be required to go to a drug rehabilitation program, Cabrera said.
Sainz said Cabrera was unable to reassure Sanders during their meeting yesterday.
Spokesman: Mexico's President Intends to Sign Drug Decriminalization Bill
Associated Press
Mexico City – Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign into law a measure that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and even heroin, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Spokesman Ruben Aguilar defended the law, approved Friday by Mexico's Senate, despite criticism by some in the United States that it could increase problems with casual drug use by visitors or in border areas.
“The president is going to sign this law,” said Aguilar, who called the legislation “a better tool ... that allows better action and better coordination in the fight against drug dealing.”
“The government believes that this law represents progress, because it established the minimum quantities that a citizen can carry for personal use,” Aguilar said.
Currently, Mexican law allows judges the latitude 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 makes the decriminalization automatic, allows “consumers” as well as addicts to have drugs, and delineates specific allowable quantities, which do not appear in the current law.
While police could still detain people for public consumption or possession of drugs, it appears that those caught would only be recommended to a treatment program – of which Mexico has few – or inclusion in a registry of “addicts.”
On Friday, San Diego, California, Mayor Jerry Sanders said he was “appalled” by the bill. The city of 1.3 million people sits a short drive from the Mexican border town of Tijuana.
“I certainly think we are going to see more drugs available in the United States,” Sanders said. “We need to register every protest the American government can muster.”
Under the law, consumers could legally possess 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.
It also gives local police more power to go after small-scale drug dealing. |
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