MEXICO CITY - President Enrique Pena Nieto said Mexico will move to legalize marijuana for medicinal use in what was seen as a stark shift for a leader who has made clamping down on all forms of drug trafficking a hallmark of his tenure. Speaking to the United Nations, Mr. Pena Nieto said Tuesday he would also raise the amount of marijuana that would be de-criminalized for personal consumption, calling its use a public health problem and urging policies that avoid punishing users. [continues 136 words]
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Tuesday that he is open to the legalization of medical marijuana in Mexico and that his government would announce new measures in the coming days. "I am giving voice to those who have [in public forums] expressed the necessity of changing the regulatory framework to authorize the use of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes," he said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Speaking at a special session where world leaders had gathered to rethink global strategy in the war on drugs-the first such meeting in two decades - Pena Nieto said that drug use should be addressed as a "public health problem" and that users should not be criminalized. [continues 103 words]
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A public recruitment drive by a Mexican drug cartel using fliers promising high wages and good benefits reflects the expanding power of the gang, experts said Friday. The recruitment fliers advertised jobs as security guards or bodyguards under the name of a fake company, and promised good benefits, a Christmas bonus and "growth in the short term," according to Jesus Eduardo Almaguer, the chief prosecutor in western Jalisco state. Those recruited were, however, employed as street-level drug dealers, not guards. They were sent to the town of Lagos de Moreno for a quick 10-day training course featuring paintball fights. [continues 385 words]
Competition from U.S. growers is cutting into Mexican pot's value and size of the market Legal marijuana may be doing at least one thing that a decades-long drug war couldn't: taking a bite out of Mexican drug cartels' profits. The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year marijuana seizures along the Southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009. [continues 516 words]
Legal Marijuana Is Cutting into Mexican Drug Cartels' Profits. The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009. The data supports the many stories about the difficulties marijuana growers in Mexico face in light of increased competition from the north. As domestic marijuana production has ramped up in places such as California, Colorado and Washington state, marijuana prices have fallen, especially at the bulk level. [continues 473 words]
MORELIA, Mexico - Pope Francis delivered his most searing indictment of the Mexican underworld Tuesday, encouraging the nation's youth to value themselves and resist the temptation to join forces with "criminal organizations that sow terror." Since his arrival Friday, Francis has made no secret of his desire to challenge the drug syndicates that have corroded Mexican life for decades. He commanded bishops to be more proactive in facing down the scourge of narcotics and denounced gangs as dealers of death. On Tuesday, in the cartel bastion of Michoacan, he mounted his most full-throated assault, imploring young people not to lose faith and become the "mercenaries of other people's ambitions." [continues 900 words]
MORELIA, Mexico - Alma Martinez got a call last year that made her whole body go cold. Her mom's voice sounded shaky and harsh: "They have him," she said, referring to Martinez's uncle. "But who has him?" Martinez asked. "Los narcos," her mother said. The narco traffickers. Martinez, 17, traveled miles Tuesday to see and hear Pope Francis, hoping his message would bring comfort to the thousands of victims of drug-gang violence like her and her family. "Something like that really hits you, you know?" she said, speaking of her uncle's kidnapping and eventual freedom, after the family paid a ransom. "And it's not just us - it happens to a lot of families here in Michoacan." [continues 1036 words]
MEXICO CITY - Armando Santacruz is a clean-cut father of five and successful business owner. Nothing at all about him screams "pothead." Yet, Santacruz, 54, is at the forefront of a growing movement to legalize marijuana in Mexico - a move that could have seismic repercussions both in Mexico and the USA. He talks about legalizing pot with the same impassioned fervor many here use to describe soccer clubs or favorite restaurants. Santacruz was one of four plaintiffs who won a pivotal Supreme Court case here in November, which allowed him and his co-plaintiffs their private consumption of cannabis and galvanized a national debate. [continues 639 words]
The Loosening of Marijuana Laws in Much of the U.S. Increases Competition. BADIRAGUATO, Mexico - He started growing marijuana as a teenager and for four decades earned a modest living from his tiny plot tucked at the base of these rugged mountains of western Mexico. He proudly shows off his illegal plants, waist-high and fragrant, strategically hidden from view by rows of corn and nearly ready to be harvested. "I've always liked this business, producing marijuana," the 50-year-old farmer said wistfully. He had decided that this season's crop would be his last. [continues 1338 words]
MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government on Friday granted the first permits allowing the cultivation and possession of marijuana for personal use. The federal medical protection agency said the permits apply only to the four plaintiffs who won a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court last month. The court said growing and consuming marijuana is covered under the right of "free development of personality." The permits don't allow the sale or distribution of the drug. [end]
MEXICO CITY - President Enrique Pena Nieto came out against legalizing marijuana Wednesday, the same day his government announced a national public debate on the issue. He suggested the recent, informal debate on the issue has created confusion. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in November that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreation is legal under the right to freedom, but that ruling applied only to the four people involved in the case. [end]
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto came out strongly against legalizing marijuana, the same day his government announced a national public debate on the issue. He suggested the recent, informal debate has already created confusion. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in November that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreation is legal under the right to freedom, but that ruling applied only to the four people involved in the case. "I am not in favor of consuming or legalizing marijuana," Pena Nieto said in a speech announcing a child welfare program. "However, I am in favor of debate so that specialists can give us some indication of where we should be going." [continues 54 words]
Mexico's drug violence casts a long shadow over the city of Ocotlan, and the Southern Californians who love it. The children paid no heed to the priest from Jalisco as he celebrated a fiesta Mass in the backyard of a La Puente ranch, or to their parents urging them to sit still for the misa, or even to the rooster crowing nearby. They were too busy studying the animals they didn't see in Los Angeles every day: a small herd of goats, a single black pig - and a troupe of dancing horses. [continues 1106 words]
TIJUANA - A Mexican Supreme Court ruling permitting marijuana use for recreational purposes has sparked a sensitive debate in Mexico about the country's drug laws, involving health advocates, scholars, law enforcement officials, and business and political leaders. Wednesday's 4-1 decision applies only to four members of an advocacy group seeking to decriminalize marijuana, granting them the right to consume and produce for their own personal use. Still, the issue has touched a nerve for many in Mexico, opening a wide-ranging discussion about the country's drug policies. [continues 940 words]
The Mexican Supreme Court opened the door to legalizing marijuana on Wednesday, delivering a pointed challenge to the nation's strict substance abuse laws and adding its weight to the growing debate in Latin America over the costs and consequences of the war against drugs. The vote by the court's criminal chamber declared that individuals should have the right to grow and distribute marijuana for their personal use. While the ruling does not strike down current drug laws, it lays the groundwork for a wave of legal actions that could ultimately rewrite them, proponents of legalization say. [continues 1185 words]
Poppy Production Booms As American Appetite for Opioids Grows With her nimble hands, tiny feet and low center of gravity, Angelica Guerrero Ortega makes an excellent opium harvester. Deployed along the Sierra Madre del Sur, where a record poppy crop covers the mountainsides in strokes of green, pink and purple, she navigates the inclines with the deftness of a ballerina. Though shy, she perks up when describing her craft: the delicate slits to the bulb, the patient scraping of the gum, earning in one day more than her parents do in a week. [continues 1616 words]
EL CALVARIO, Mexico - With her nimble hands, tiny feet and low center of gravity, Angelica Guerrero Ortega makes an excellent opium harvester. Deployed along the Sierra Madre del Sur, where a record poppy crop covers the mountainsides in strokes of green, pink and purple, she navigates the inclines with the deftness of a ballerina. Though shy, she perks up when describing her craft: the delicate slits to the bulb, the patient scraping of the gum, earning in one day more than her parents do in a week. [continues 1630 words]
CALVARIO, MEXICO - With her nimble hands, tiny feet and low center of gravity, Angelica Guerrero Ortega makes an excellent opium harvester. Deployed along the Sierra Madre del Sur, where a record poppy crop covers the mountainsides in strokes of green, pink and purple, she navigates the inclines with the deftness of a ballerina. Though shy, she perks up when describing her craft: the delicate slits to the bulb, the patient scraping of the gum, earning in one day more than her parents do in a week. [continues 582 words]
An 8-Year-Old's Debilitating Illness Tests Mexico's Ban on Marijuana Use Monterrey, Mexico - They can tell the next one's coming when she begins rubbing her hands together, as if washing them. Her head slumps, and she looks left. She starts to flick her fingers and knead her skinny thigh. About once an hour, Grace Elizalde's brain electrifies in epileptic seizures intense enough that her brown eyes dance wildly back and forth and she spreads her arms out like a cartoon ghost. These are the big brain quakes, but there are hundreds of flash tremors each day that leave the 8-year-old Mexican girl exhausted and limp. [continues 1629 words]
A US Ultimatum Demanding That Mexico Ban Previously Legal Narcotics 'Forced Addicts and Producers to Take Up Arms' Mexico's drug trade is synonymous with violence, corruption and cartel bosses battling for territory. But it could have been so different, it's claimed in a new book, had the US not issued an ultimatum 75years ago which ignited the war on drugs - leading to death and destruction on both sides of the border. Documents in the book reveal that Mexico legalised drugs in 1940, after doctors convinced the then president, Lazaro Cardenas, that prohibition was damaging public health. Doctors believed that the best way to tackle drug-related ills was to treat addicts rather than lock-up smugglers and producers. [continues 620 words]
Inside Mexico
