Mexico moving to corner ganja tourist market

[Sir X]

Mexican officials introduce bills seeking to relax marijuana laws
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Mexico marijuana
Mexican police officers stand guard next to 2 tons of seized marijuana in Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua state. (Jesus Alcazar / AFP/Getty Images / February 6, 2014)
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By Richard Fausset
February 13, 2014, 4:13 p.m.

MEXICO CITY – Lawmakers in Mexico introduced bills Thursday that would create marijuana dispensaries in the capital and increase the amount of the drug people across the country could carry for “personal use.”

The proposals to Mexico City’s Legislative Assembly and the federal legislature would amount to a partial “decriminalization” of marijuana, advocates said, not full legalization.

The Mexico City bill would instruct police and judges to deprioritize the prosecution of marijuana violations under some circumstances. It would create “dissuasion commissions” to which some violators could be sent for administrative sanctions, in lieu of the traditional criminal court process.

It would also direct the government to designate spaces in the city where marijuana could be sold without fear of prosecution under certain criteria, including offering consumers warnings about potential health risks.

The federal bill would allow for the use of medical marijuana, give states and the Mexico City government more say in setting drug policy, and increase the amount of marijuana allowed for personal use from 5 grams to 30. The bill would also raise personal limits for LSD, methamphetamine and cocaine.

“We believe we’re making a very important contribution to a global debate that has to do with rethinking the issue of drugs,” Vidal Llerenas, a member of the Mexico City Legislative Assembly and sponsor of the local legislation, said at a news conference.

The legalization debate has heated up in Mexico, and across Latin America, in recent months, amid dissatisfaction with the violent fallout from U.S.-backed prohibitionist policies in the hemisphere and the changing situation in the U.S., where Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana in 2012. American legalization advocates have also been working to put a legalization measure on ballots in Florida and California this year.

In Mexico, polls generally show weaker support for liberalizing marijuana laws than in the U.S., and the bills introduced Thursday face serious political challenges. The newspaper El Universal polled the 66 members of Mexico City’s legislature and found that only 11 openly expressed support for the bill. Thirty were against it, and the rest were either undecided or declined to state their preference.

Since passing a law decriminalizing the personal use of small amounts of drugs in 2009, the federal legislature has been reluctant to green-light other pot liberalization bills.

Mexico City is a bastion of social liberalism, having previously broken new ground for Mexico with the legalization of abortion and gay marriage.

Some observers this week criticized the local marijuana bill as too weak.

In the newspaper Excelsior, columnist Adrian Rueda called it a “decaffeinated” effort. In contrast, Jorge Castañeda, Mexico’s former foreign minister, said that if Mexico City allowed for what he called a de facto legalization of drug sales, “it will have tremendous repercussions nationally and internationally.”



http://www.latimes.com/world/worldno...#ixzz2tFvaK8lK

[Sir X]

Mexico City Mulls Legalizing Sale of Marijuana
MEXICO CITY February 14, 2014 (AP)
By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press
Associated Press
Leftist lawmakers in Mexico City's legislature introduced a bill Thursday that would legalize the sale of marijuana within the capital, expanding on a national law that already decriminalizes the possession by users of small amounts of pot throughout the country.

It wasn't immediately clear how wide support was for the idea within the local assembly, which is controlled by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, but Mayor Manuel Mancera backed the idea and the legislature is one of the most liberal in Mexico. It has previously legalized abortion and gay marriage.

The ambitious plan is sure to create controversy in a country gripped by drug-related violence in several regions and where President Enrique Pena Nieto has insisted that legalization would not reduce crime. If passed, the legislation would apply only inside the city, which has about 8 million residents, although it's not clear if all 21 million people in the metropolitan area could take advantage of the law.

The bill's sponsors acknowledged many details remained to be worked out, but called their proposal a first step in starting discussions about legalizing marijuana use.

Lawmaker Vidal Llerenas, who proposed the bill, said the objective is to allow authorities to focus on more serious crimes.

"Mexico needs to lead a discussion about how we can deal with drugs in a different way," Llerenas said. "This is a country that has been destroyed by the war against drugs that has been based on prohibition."

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Mexico since the federal government began a crackdown on drug cartels in 2006.

Since 2009, Mexico has allowed the possession of no more than 5 grams of marijuana, about four joints, for personal use, but it still requires arrests of people caught buying or selling pot in any amount.

The initiative proposed for Mexico City would legalize the purchase and sale of 5 grams from private dispensaries. The businesses would be limited in the total amount of marijuana that each could sell, but details on the maximum weren't clear. The sponsors also didn't say how purchasers might be policed, or offer any estimate on the number of marijuana dispensaries envisioned.

Along with the local proposal, the backers are pushing an initiative at the federal level that proposes increasing to 30 grams the decriminalized amount of marijuana users would be allowed to possess. The federal proposal also wants to legalize the growing and processing of marijuana plants throughout the country.

If approved, the local bill wouldn't need federal approval to take effect, but the president would be able to challenge it in the courts.

Mexican Assistant Interior Secretary Roberto Campa said that so far there is no plan to challenge the initiatives, but stressed that both require a deeper analysis before their approval.

The proposal comes as efforts are spreading around the world to lessen or lift restrictions on marijuana.

Voters in the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington legalized the recreational use of marijuana. The federal government opposed the idea, but President Barack Obama has said it is not his administration's priority to prosecute marijuana use.

Uruguay last year became the first country to legalize the production and commercialization of marijuana nationwide.

The initiative "puts Mexico City in a leading position in Latin America," said Jorge Castaneda, a former foreign minister in Mexico. "Rather than continue fighting a war that makes no sense, now we are joining a cutting-edge process," he added.