Continuing down the road to mayhem, Mexico legalizes drug possession in what is being called by some “regulating the issue” as opposed to legalizing drugs. Mexico legalized marijuana, cocaine and heroin in small amounts on Friday.
Mexico Legalized Marijuana
Prosecutors are using the excuse of corrupt police officers who extort casual users as one of the top reasons Mexico legalized drug possession. They also site free drug treatment for addicts as an excuse to support Mexican legalization of drugs.
Corruption of Mexican officials is not a new thing; in the past, being caught with a small amount of marijuana in Mexico meant that you might possibly get off. But problems have persisted in which corrupt police officers forced bribes out of drug offenders or face jail time.
But now if you’re caught with what is called a “personal use” amount of marijuana or other illicit drug you get off free and clear. Mexico legalizes drug possession in this way, if you’re caught with 5 grams of marijuana, half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams of meth, or 0.015 milligrams of LSD, these amounts qualify for a “personal use” amount. From Breitbart:
Anyone caught with drug amounts under the new personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory.
Mexico legalizing drugs could send the wrong message to the Mexican army which has been given the task of combating the vicious drug cartel war that has left thousands dead since 2006. This could possibly have ramifications in the United States, as states like California have routinely battled to legalize drugs like marijuana.
Legalize Drugs
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:01 am
Cannabis should be flat-out legalized. REGULATED like alcohol, but legalized. Aside from the basic American freedom, of making my own choices about my own body, it simply isn’t as dangerous as two LEGAL drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Alcohol KILLS 150,000 Americans a year, and addicts 15% of those who use.
Nicotine KILLS 450,000 Americans a year, and addicts 30% of those who use.
Cannabis kills ZERO Americans a year, and can cause dependence in 10% of those who use.
The ‘gateway’ drug theory was disproven in a 1999 Institute of Medicine report that determined that alcohol and nicotine were TRUE gateway drugs, and cannabis was NOT.
So it’s not a gateway drug, it’s significantly less dangerous than alcohol and nicotine, and less addictive as well, and it’s the one that’s illegal?!
The facts disprove the ‘Reefer Madness.’ Stop oppressing your fellow Americans. The VAST majority of us are hard-working, tax-paying, home-owning, child-rearing CITIZENS who simply want to relax with a less dangerous, less addictive substance than alcohol or cigarettes.
DON’T TREAD ON ME!!!
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:17 am
Couldn’t find a contact link: I’m with rightriot.com and we’re wondering if you’d like to exchange links and get traffic from us. Join the site and promote your blog posts there and we’ll send you traffic in return.
Also would you mind giving us a post to let your readership know about rightriot.com? We’re rebuilding our userbase from a hacking attack and we need all the help we can get from other conservative net people. Thanks!
by the way I absolutely agree with the above poster. There’s no reason whatsoever that the government should be allowed to arrest people over possession of a relatively harmless herb.
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
First of all, Mexico did not legalize anything. They _decriminalized_ these substances, as in, removing the crime element from the offense. Second of all, what Mexican officials are saying with regards to the bill are not excuses either, they are legitimate arguments. Drugs are here to stay and there will always be a person who will want to try a mind altering substance, regardless of what anyone thinks. As with many things that are legal today, drugs carry problems with them as well, however by making them illegal, all we are doing is handing the control of these substances to criminal enterprises and creating a HUGE mess of things (ie. the unwinnable drug war). Therefore, the best way to deal with this problem is “harm reduction”, in other words, to try and decrease the number of problems that is associated with drugs in general. The best example of this is what we have done with alcohol. When it was illegal, it was hell and violence was rampant. Now that it is legal, we try to deal with the social costs BUT at least we dont have criminal enterprises resolving their business disputes with extreme violence and many other nasty things that stemmed from prohibition. THAT is why (some) drugs should be legalized and controlled.
What Mexico has done here is to switch from jailing drug users to offering treatment for their disease (addiction) IF they indeed are addicted (responsible pot and psychedelic users rarely fall in this category). It’s a step in the right direction but the people who supply those drugs are still making money, killing people and all kinds of horrible things.
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Gustavo,
One man’s legitimate argument is another man’s excuse. Legalize, decriminalize, what exactly is the difference?
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
rightriot, I will pass your information on to the editors. I checked out your site and it looks pretty good.
However exchanging links is above my pay grade. I just felt like President Obama!
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
mexico DECRIMINALIZED drugs, up to 5 grams of marijuana if you are caught 3 times with any type of drug treatment is MANDATORY drugs in mexico were not legalized
August 22nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Here we go with the classic “sending the wrong message” BS. Thanks for that insightful analysis, Shannon. Say, if you were actually interested in doing research and meaningful analysis, find out what happened in every single jurisdiction around the world that dialed back its cannabis prohibitions. I bet you’re not though.
Silly right-wing, moralist zealots…
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:51 pm
“Legalize, decriminalize, what exactly is the difference?”
Usually decriminalization means that possession is no longer a crime. It does not mean that possession is legal though. Several states have decriminalized marijuana. For most states that have done this what it means is that if someone is caught with pot, they get a ticket. It is treated as a “violation” or a “civil infraction,” but not a crime. California has supposedly decriminalized marijuana but possession is still technically a misdemeanor offense there. People are still just ticketed there and there is no threat of jail time for possessing a small amount, but they still end up with a criminal record.
Legalization is different. When a drug is legal, like alcohol or nicotine for instance, there may be regulation, but commercial production and retail sales are allowed and people are allowed to possess and consume the product.
With the new Mexican laws, possession is not really allowed. The police will still confiscate drugs they find on people. It looks like they are also going to be writing some sort of ticket or something, or at least taking down names, because on the third offense treatment is going to be mandatory. And of course production and sales are still crimes there too, so what they have is a long way from legalization.
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Shannon, yes you are right about the first comment. However, if you really think about this particular issue, the most sensible and smart thing to do is the legalization of (some) drugs as I stated before. It will not bring about a perfect solution, but it is the best approach we can take - Definitely better than the so-called war on drugs.
Regarding the difference between decriminalization and legalization, Matthew got it spot on. However, as far as I know, no tickets or “fines” will be given out. They will probably keep tabs on the identities of the offenders so they know when is a 1st, 2nd or 3rd offense.
I’m glad you asked that question because the term decriminalization means different things in different parts of the world. What Matthew described as decriminalization applies more or less to the United States. Someone who is found with a small amount of pot receives a ticket but they do not get a criminal record, they are not sent to jail, if they receive federal loans for school or college, those are not taken away, people don’t lose their housing etc etc. In the U.S. it varies from state to state.
The Netherlands takes a different approach to decriminalization. In Amsterdam, for example, people can possess up to 30 grams of cannabis for personal use, they can buy up to 5 grams at a time per day, coffeeshops are only allowed to have 500 grams in stock at a time, BUT the commercial production of cannabis is illegal and enforced. In Holland, the Dutch distinguish soft drugs from hard drugs but in reality there is no black and white. There is a huge gray area when it comes to the supply side of the cannabis industry unfortunately making it very confusing.
Hope that helps.
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Gustavo:
I don’t know that what they have in the Netherlands really is decriminalization. I don’t know what you’d call it. Possession is still a crime according to their law books. Retail sales is still a crime, as is even small scale production. But they have an official policy of tolerance that is actually recognized by their courts. They allow people to possess a small amount of marijuana and their courts have even ruled that not only can no one be prosecuted for it, but the police can’t even take their pot. They haven’t found the criminal laws unconstitutional, but instead they say that as long as the government has this official policy of tolerance they cannot just selectively prosecute or harrass some people if they aren’t going to do the same to everyone.
Marijuana is really legal for all intents and purposes there, except that commercial production is not allowed. That of course means that organized crime will supply the retail shops, which is a bad thing, but they believe that legalizing commercial production wouldl run afoul of international law and with the Netherlands being such a small country without much power on the world stage they are afraid to push it that far. The “policy of tolerance” fiction with respect to possession, retail sales, and growing up to five plants per household, is already pushing the envelope.
What they have looks an awful lot like legalization to me because marijuana can be bought and sold and people can possess it without fear of arrest or any type of criminal or civil sanction, and the police can’t even take it from people. Courts even protect people and their rights with respect to marijuana under the official “policy of tolerance.” In practice this is very much like having laws on the books that have been declared unconstitutional and supplimented with court made law. The only difference is that the official policy of tolerance could someday be changed or done away with and then the courts would have to enforce the underlying laws in their criminal code. This is at least quasi legalization, temporary legalization, or something like that.