Pubdate: Sun, 24 Apr 2016
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2016 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Joshua Partlow, the Washington Post

THE AMERICAS REFLECT AN ABOUT-FACE ON POT

Shift to Legalization

Big Change in Area That Includes Big Producers of Marijuana, Opium

MEXICO CITY - With a swipe of his pen last 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 at a United Nations 
podium and said 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, 
including Washington, 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 a change seemed unimaginable 
just a few years back. Using illegal drugs has long been taboo in the 
conservative, predominantly Roman 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 addiction 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 1 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 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 last 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 the policy of prohibition of drugs has failed 
and 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 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."

Past legislative efforts to decriminalize marijuana use in Mexico have failed.

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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom