Mexico to Decriminalize Possession of Marijuana, Cocaine and Heroin

While the big news in US-Mexican relations over the week-end and today has been and will be immigration legislation in Washington, an interesting development arose in Mexico City, where President Vicente Fox appears ready to sign a bill decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs including marijuana, cocaine and heroin. American reaction was cautious, but it does raise a new dimension in the border control and immigration debate.

The prohibition of drugs has been proved time and again to be a waste of police resources. That is not to condone the use and abuse of drugs but rather it is an acknowledgment of a simple fact. The police lack infinite resources and should, therefore, not bother with retail consumption of drugs until every last murderer, rapist and violent offender is off the streets. Indeed, decriminalization and legalization take much of the profit out of drugs, and that puts pressure on organized crime. In the developing world, legalization would make it harder to field a guerrilla force. Columbia has had a drug-financed civil war for almost four decades now.

“No charges will be brought against ... addicts or consumers who are found in possession of any narcotic for personal use,” the bill reads. That means that the Mexican authorities are going after the pushers and the growers, redirecting their limited resources. It also means that Mexican jails won’t fill up with people who are not, in any other sense of the word, criminals. This helps solve many Mexican problems.

However, there is a huge border with the US that isn’t secured on either side. Just how will the US customs officers deal with a tourist who has gone to Tijuana or Juarez for the day, who just happened to “forget” about the little bag in the trunk? One could argue that it will move the pushers out of the southern most part of the US, or that it will encourage more drug use by Americans. In reality, the effects are uncertain.

However, at a time when the US is growing evermore paranoid about its porous southern border, this will allow the nativists to argue that drug smuggling is now part of the problem as well as illegal immigration and security threats. Of course, decriminalization and legalization in the US would solve that problem, but no one in power in the US has the courage to take that risk. Instead, this is another gallon of gasoline (now approaching $4) on the fire of illegal immigration into the US.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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