April 30, 2006
From KFMB.com:
Currently, Mexican law leaves open the possibility of dropping charges against people caught with drugs if they can prove they are drug addicts and if an expert certifies they were caught with "the quantity necessary for personal use."Specifically, the new law would allow a person to carry the following:The new bill drops the "addict" requirement, allows "consumers" to have drugs, and sets out specific allowable quantities, which do not appear in the current law.
- Marijuana (5 gms),I am stunned! A person could be a legal walking pharmacy. More surprising is the fact that the measure is being pushed while drug addiction among Mexicans is increasing.
- Heroin (25 mgms),
- Cocaine (0.5 gm),
- Peyote (2.2 lbs), and
- An array of other drugs, including:- Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA),
- Methylenedioxymethamphetamine/Ecstasy (MDMA),
- Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), and
- Amphetamines.
To be fair, though, the bill reportedly stiffens some penalties for trafficking and possession by government employees and near schools. In support of the bill, backers say it will free up police to go after major drug traffickers and avoid crowding jails with small-time offenders. Of course, using their logic, Mexico should legalize convenience store robberies to allow police to focus on bank heists. Interestingly, the timing of the announcement of the intent to legalize drugs probably could not have come at a more troubling time. At present, tensions between the U.S. and Mexico are heightened due to a variety of factors. These include:
Monday's planned skip-work day by hard-working illegal aliens to prove that Mexicans are hard-workers. Ostensibly, the hardest workers will take the whole week or month off.Not to be overly dramatic, but I feel that someone unwelcome moved into my house and there is nobody to call for help. My only options are to tolerate the trespassers or leave my home. It didn't used to be that way. I recall when the government protected and defended the citizens and territorial boundaries of the United States.Hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens demonstrating in the streets, demanding citizenship, and carrying Mexican flags.
Calls by activists to open the borders to hard-working trespassers while tagging as racist anyone who wants a secure border.
Prisons and jails, hospital emergency rooms, school systems, and welfare rolls all being overburdened by illegals.
And, not a small issue, calls for the Star Spangled Banner to be sung in Spanish.
Nevertheless, with all the existing problems associated with having an imaginary border between the U.S. and Mexico, the last thing needed is the implied promise that every illegal alien crossing the border will soon be carrying "personal use" amounts of a variety of illicit drugs. To quote the Mayor of San Diego, Jerry Sanders, it's "appallingly stupid." I agree.
From Interested-Participant.
Posted by: Mike Pechar at
05:16 AM
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May 1 is "Labor Day" in the rest of the world. It's primarily in the U.S. that the date was changed, so as to obscure its socialist origin.
And I have to wonder if the illegal border traffic won't start flowing two ways, with certain Americans going down to Mexico to get high.
Posted by: Michael Hampton at April 30, 2006 06:00 AM (FVbj6)
Posted by: Scott at April 30, 2006 07:11 AM (a7tCL)
Posted by: john Ryan at April 30, 2006 07:39 AM (TcoRJ)
Posted by: sandpiper at April 30, 2006 08:08 AM (b1Fi6)
Posted by: Graeme at April 30, 2006 08:46 AM (IX6/9)
Mexico will never change - build a wall 20' high - with a sufficent number of doors for the best, brightest, ambitious, and decent.
Posted by: hondo at April 30, 2006 11:25 AM (SeBrl)
Local Mexican police aren't stupid! This will be a great opportunity for selective drug enforcement with tourists! Think of the blackmail and extortion opportunities! an affluent American will pay 10-20 thou easy to keep their pothead children out of a Mexican prision!
Posted by: hondo at April 30, 2006 11:33 AM (SeBrl)
Suppose another country had almost no drug problem. Suppose
that country had less than a small fraction of one percent
of our drug arrests. And suppose that country had almost no
"drug-related crime" and that their robbery rate was a tiny
fraction of our robbery rate.
Do you think is might be wise and prudent to carefully observe
that other country's drug policy and that we should model that
other country's drug policy?
Well, there is such a country: The Czech Republic.
The Czech Republic is the only country in the world where adult
citizens can legally use, possess and grow small quantities of
marijuana. (In the Netherlands, marijuana is quasi-legal - not
officially legal.)
The Czech overall drug arrest rate is 1 per 100,000 population. The
United States' overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000 population.
The Czech robbery rate is 2 per 100,000 population. The United States'
robbery rate is 145.9 per 100,000 population, according to our FBI.
According to our drug war cheerleaders, tolerant marijuana laws cause
people to use other, much more dangerous drugs, like methamphetamine
and heroin. Obviously, this doesn't happen in the Czech Republic.
Why not?
Could it be that when people can legally obtain marijuana at an
affordable price, they tend not to use or desire any other recreational
drugs?
Could it be that marijuana legalization actually creates a roadblock to
hard drug use - not a gateway?
Could it be that the vast majority our so-called "drug-related crime"
is caused by our marijuana prohibition policies?
Could it be that if we keep doing what we have been doing, we will
probably get the same results? Should we throw another trillion
dollars down the drug war rat hole? Or should we do something
different--dramatically different?
Kirk Muse
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
Mesa, 85209
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
Source for the 145.9 robberies per 100,000 population
statistic is from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 2002 final
statistics.
Source for the Czech Republic's marijuana legalization
policy: "A Czech Toke on Freedom," by Jeffrey Fleishman in the
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 24 2006.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-weed24jan24,0,7449540.story
Source for Czech crime rate statistics:
http://www.notebooktravel.co.uk/travellersguide/travellersguidepages/czechrepublic.htm
(Scroll to bottom of the page).
Posted by: Kirk Muse at April 30, 2006 12:49 PM (/ZDpr)
If anyone's interested in the detailed realities of Czech/drugs .... which of course ... is totally lacking from the above.
Posted by: hondo at April 30, 2006 01:22 PM (SeBrl)
Crime stats courtesy the FBI (????).
Kirk's been toting the weed too long! Wanna compare/talk about Czech drug laws etc. ...... well ... duh! ... some Czech input would, like, be helpful ... or is that too much to absorb thru the haze?
Posted by: hondo at April 30, 2006 01:33 PM (SeBrl)
It is amazing how instructive travel is. I spoke to a lot of people down there about the upcoming elections, and the working assumption of many is that the PAN will steal the election, just as the PRI did in 88. By comparison, our own electoral system, for all its flaws, seems okay. Of course, they have several things we could learn from--like national voter registration and uniform election laws and a holiday for the election.
Posted by: jd at April 30, 2006 03:25 PM (uT71O)
If decapitated people makes you want to offer criminals amnesty, when do we offer it to the Taliban / Al-Qaeda?
I'm sure there is a lot of things we could learn from Mexico, like how to make a hut out of a sheet of plastic, and three sheets of corrugated steel or how to export poverty.
Posted by: davec at April 30, 2006 04:39 PM (CcXvt)
Posted by: crazy cat lady at April 30, 2006 04:45 PM (rjg51)
You miss the point friend ... you speak of planting drugs and phony charges ... new senario ... no need for planting and the charges are real ... tailor made for an increase in corruption reference tourists.
Posted by: hondo at April 30, 2006 05:07 PM (SeBrl)
Posted by: Michael Hampton at April 30, 2006 06:16 PM (FVbj6)
And yes, the Mexican police are badly corrupt. Some of the people I met down there said the attitude of most Mexicans is if your house gets robbed, don't call the police--they'll just case it for another robbery. Hondo, you may be right that as opposed to planting drugs in small amounts, the police can now arrest someone and exaggerate the amount he had. We'll see, I guess.
One thing we ARE learning from Mexico, Dave, is to tolerate increasing gaps between the richest and the poorest. If current trends of exacerbating the share of national income held by the top 1% and top .1% continue, we may have to learn many things that Mexico has known for years about money and class and social rigidity. Hopefully, it won't come to learning about hut creation.
Posted by: jd at April 30, 2006 09:04 PM (uT71O)
Posted by: Last gasp Larry at April 30, 2006 11:32 PM (h4PzP)
Unfortunately, Mexican leaders show no willingness to legalize the manufacture or sale of marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs. Indeed, they have argued that the new law will enable law enforcement agencies to devote more resources to supressing trafficking. That means the huge potential profit in the drug trade will persist—and so will the corruption and violence that is tearing Mexico’s society apart.
Posted by: Anastasia at May 01, 2006 09:55 AM (lcebH)
Posted by: craig at May 01, 2006 08:13 PM (CMKoe)
Posted by: craig at May 01, 2006 08:17 PM (CMKoe)
Posted by: josh at May 04, 2006 10:24 AM (2N1xj)
Posted by: josh at May 04, 2006 10:25 AM (2N1xj)
Posted by: Last gasp Larry at May 04, 2006 11:41 AM (FCC6c)
The best solution is to legalize and educate.
Policing, jailing, and court costs are large. Not only would legalization reduce the necessary sizes of our police forces, jails, and court systems; it would also make a very large market available for taxation.
Young people should be educated that drugs are often harmful. Education has been the main influence in the sharp decline in teen tobacco consumption. Should a person find themselves with a problem, the facilities should exist to help them recover.
Posted by: Yummy at May 14, 2006 04:06 PM (r99Fg)
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