Pubdate: Sat, 23 Apr 2016
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2016 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Joshua Partlow

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION GAINS MOMENTUM IN THE AMERICAS

Mexico City - With a swipe of his pent his week, Mexican President 
Enrique Pena Nieto proposed that Mexican citizens could legally 
possess up to an ounce of pot.

The day before, Canada's health minister stood on a United Nations 
podium and announced that her country would introduce new federal 
legislation to make cannabis legal by next year.

Already, people are free to smoke marijuana in four U.S. states and 
the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana is allowed in almost 
half the country. Uruguay has fully legalized weed for sale. And a 
large chunk of South and Central America, including Brazil, Peru, 
Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, has made marijuana more 
available in varying ways, whether it is for medicinal or recreational use.

In the shift toward legalization of marijuana, the Americas have 
emerged as a leader. This is a remarkable shift for a region that 
includes some of the world's leading producers of marijuana, coca and 
opium poppy, and where the U.S. government has spearheaded a 
decades-long campaign against cultivation of the substances.

"It's undeniable that the terms of the debate about drugs are 
changing in Mexico and in the world," Pena Nieto said during a speech 
Thursday announcing his new legislative proposal. "Fortunately, a new 
world consensus is gradually emerging in favor of reform."

For many Mexicans, the prospect of such reform seemed unimaginable 
just a few years back. Using illegal drugs has long been taboo in 
this conservative, predominantly Catholic country- as is true in many 
other Latin American nations. Drug-trafficking groups have inflicted 
horrific violence on the country, with an estimated 100,000 people 
dying in the past decade as the cartels have battled for control of 
shipping lanes to the United States. Polls have shown that a majority 
of Mexicans oppose legalizing drugs, fearing it would increase 
addictions and crime.

To have a Mexican president come out publicly in favor of loosening 
drug laws struck many people as historic.

"This was the breaking point," said Jorge Diaz Cuervo, a Mexican 
economist and politician who recently published a book on the 
prospect of legalizing marijuana. "There is now a before and after."

Pena Nieto's initiative would make it legal for anyone to own up to 
28 grams of marijuana-or one ounce- as long as it was intended for 
personal use. It would also permit the use of marijuana for medicinal 
purposes and make it easier to free prisoners who are being held on 
minor drug charges. The move came after five public forums held 
across Mexico this year to solicit public opinion and expert 
testimony on the prospect of changing drug laws. Mexicans were 
previously allowed to possess up to 5 grams.

Pena Nieto spoke this week at a U.N. General Assembly special session 
on narcotics that had been scheduled at the request of Mexico, 
Colombia and Guatemala, the first such gathering in nearly 20 years. 
In his speech, he said that the policy of prohibition of drugs has 
failed and that countries needed to look for an alternative.

His initiative would need legislative approval, although with 
presidential support many expect it has a good chance. The proposal 
was seen by legalization advocates as a welcome first step, although 
some argued that it was important to pass additional measures - such 
as allowing Mexican farmers to grow marijuana so that the medicinal 
industry could succeed.

Zara Snapp, a drug policy expert from Mexico, said it was important 
to "move drugs out of the security realm and into the health and 
human rights space."

But opposition still is formidable in Mexico for blanket legalization 
of marijuana and other drugs.

And critics of Pena Nieto's plan say that increasing the quantity of 
marijuana that adults can smoke will simply lead to more consumption 
and will not significantly reduce the business of drug cartels, which 
make money in diverse ways, including extortion, human trafficking 
and the trafficking of cocaine and heroin.

Elias Octavio Iniguez Mejia of the right-leaning National Action 
Party, who serves as president of the health commission in the lower 
house of the National Congress, said he would consider medicinal use 
of marijuana, as long as studies on its effects were done in Mexico 
by Mexican institutions. But he remains firmly opposed to recreational use.

"It's not a panacea, nor is it going to decrease crime," he said. He 
predicted that Mexico "will enter a dynamic where our children, who 
are a vulnerable group, will see consumption as a normal thing."

Alejandro Gertz Manero, a former Mexico City police chief and 
ex-federal secretary of public security, said the only thing that 
would come from the proposed reforms is "narcos are going to become 
respectable businessmen."

"This is a veritable circle of contradictions, of scandalous 
affirmations, of evasion of responsibilities," he said. "We should 
diagnose and find solutions, but what's happening now is the height 
of ridiculousness."

A shift in mind-set

Past legislative efforts to decriminalize marijuana use in Mexico 
have failed. One of the driving forces behind such efforts was 
Fernando Belaunzaran, who served as a congressman from the left-wing 
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) until last year.

Last April, Belaunzaran received a text message asking for help from 
Raul Elizalde, a businessman in Monterrey whose 8-year-old daughter, 
Grace, suffered from severe epilepsy. Elizalde wanted to provide his 
daughter with marijuana oil, an experimental treatment available in 
the United States and Europe, but Mexico had banned the substance.

After a judge ruled in favor of the Elizaldes, and they won access to 
the substance, Grace's case became a symbol in Mexico of the 
burgeoning debate over marijuana use. Pena Nieto, who appeared at a 
news conference at the Health Ministry in Mexico City on Thursday 
with Raul Elizalde, said his decision to push reforms was motivated 
by a desire to avoid "the suffering of girls, boys and patients, like 
Grace, who have epilepsy or other conditions and can't access 
effective therapies."

Pena Nieto also highlighted the problems of Mexico's prison system, 
crowded with low-level drug offenders. He warned against the 
"injustice that thousands of people, especially women, many of them 
mothers, suffer for being turned into criminals for consuming marijuana."

Pena Nieto is considered a conservative on the drug issue, so his 
announcement surprised some Mexicans. But in recent months, the 
debate has changed. Last fall, the Supreme Court ruled that a group 
of activists could legally grow and sell marijuana. The Senate is 
also considering legislation to have a state-regulated marijuana industry.

Earlier this month, Mexican newspapers reported that Pena Nieto 
wasn't planning to attend the U.N. drug summit. But after reviewing 
the results of the public forums, Pena Nieto decided to go.

After his speech Thursday, he shook hands with Belaunzaran, the 
former congressman who has long advocated for legalization.

"Congratulations on this first step," Belaunzaran told him.

"It is a first step," Pena Nieto agreed.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom