Pubdate: Sun, 8 Aug 2010
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2010 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Lauren Villagran, Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION GAINING FAVOR IN MEXICO

Frustration With Drug War Causing Shift; U.S. Stance Still an Obstacle

MEXICO CITY   Wearing a pressed shirt and tie, banging away on his 
laptop, law professor Alejandro Madrazo Lajous doesn't come across as 
an activist for legalizing marijuana.

But as the attorney for an organization at the forefront of the 
growing legalization movement in Mexico, he is one of its most ardent 
advocates.

"Seeing the destruction of my country because of the war on drugs, I 
began to realize the importance of debating the idea," said Madrazo, 
who is also an attorney for the Collective for an Integral Policy on Drugs.

Once a subject so taboo that college kids here didn't even whisper 
about smoking pot, the idea of legalizing marijuana in Mexico has 
gained increasing favor, especially among a vocal group of academics, 
intellectuals and politicians.

Analysts say the shift   which echoes an increasing openness to 
legalization in the U.S. outside of Texas   is both a function of 
changing generational attitudes toward drugs and growing public 
frustration with the country's drug war.

The death toll has risen to 28,000 since 2006, with more than 6,000 
people killed in Ciudad Juarez, just across from El Paso, since 2008. 
President Felipe Calderon said recently he would support a national 
debate on the issue of legalization, reversing his previous stance on 
the subject. However, he underscored that he does not favor 
legalization, especially while the U.S., the world's largest consumer 
of drugs, maintains prohibition.

Calderon's call for a debate on legalization is significant, but 
political obstacles still stand in the way, said David Shirk, 
director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

"It would be very difficult for Mexico to legalize when its northern 
neighbor, the most powerful country in the world, is against 
legalization," he said. "Mexico could not do that unilaterally 
without provoking a very strong political reaction from the United States."

Yet attitudes toward legalization have slowly been changing in the U.S., too.

Fourteen states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical 
marijuana. Texas has been quiet on marijuana reform, but the state 
has relaxed rules on incarceration of first-time offenders. And in 
November, California residents will have a chance to vote on 
Proposition 19, which aims to legalize marijuana use for adults. A 
federal official notes that the law, if passed, would contradict the 
Federal Controlled Substances Act.

In Mexico, some 5 million people say they use marijuana, according to 
the national health ministry. That's about 5 percent of the population.

In the U.S., according to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and 
Health, 35.5 million people said they had used marijuana in the past 
year, or about 10 percent of the population. In Texas, nearly 8 
percent of Texans age 12 and older had reported using marijuana in 
the past year.

Four proposals that aim for varying degrees of decriminalization or 
legalization are on the docket in Mexico's House of Deputies and 
another is circulating in the Senate. The proposals have garnered 
support from liberal and conservative lawmakers, as well as members 
of the congressional national security committee.

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox has been stumping for 
legalization. Last year, another former Mexican president, Ernesto 
Zedillo, pressed for decriminalization in a widely publicized report 
produced with former leaders of Colombia and Brazil.

Whether legalizing drugs would serve to curb the cartel violence in 
Mexico remains a subject of debate.

Marijuana   the most targeted drug in decriminalization and 
legalization proposals in Mexico and the U.S.   is not a high-margin 
product for drug trafficking organizations, analysts say, while 
cocaine is. And criminal organizations do more than traffic drugs 
these days: Kidnappings, bank robbery, extortion and human 
trafficking are also part of their business.

Take marijuana out of the equation and "all the things they are 
involved in, all these incredibly horrible crimes, of which narcotics 
is only a part, would still go on," said Gail Kerlikowske, director 
of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"I don't think that marijuana legalization will be a panacea on drug 
violence in Mexico," said Shirk. "But legalization could change the 
nature of the fight. Drugs are so much more profitable than any other 
form of illicit activity. You take away that profitability, and you 
cripple the organizations' ability to corrupt the state."

For its part, the Obama administration doesn't anticipate Calderon 
will shift his strategy any time soon.

"Calderon has been very firm, and very strict, on his opposition to 
legalizing drugs," said Kerlikowske.

As he prepared for an evening meeting with the pro-legalization 
group, Madrazo, the attorney, said he hopes for a legal marijuana 
market wrested from the hands of criminals   one that would be 
"neither a free market nor a black market but a market that is regulated." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake