Mexico Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession
Mexico enacted a law decriminalizing possession of marijuana (and other drugs) yesterday, according to the Associated Press.
The new law defines 5 grams of marijuana as a “personal use” amount. People caught in possession of less than that amount will face no penalty until their third offense, at which point the law requires them to enter addiction treatment. The change is part of the Mexican government’s efforts to fight a very hot war against drug cartels along its border with the U.S. By decriminalizing marijuana, Mexico seeks to free up law enforcement resources that have been wasted arresting non-violent marijuana users.
A similar law, proposed during former president Vicente Fox’s administration, was defeated following significant opposition from President George W. Bush. We have not seen the same pressure from the Obama administration this time around. In fact, current Mexican president Felipe Calderón has used this new law to send a message north about the need for a similar debate to take place on our side of the border. Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, for example, called for such a debate to be taken seriously by the U.S. in April, and the Mexican Senate scheduled discussion of the new law to coincide with President Obama’s first trip to Mexico.
Taking these events in context — especially considering the chorus of high-profile former Latin American leaders calling for the U.S. to change its heavy-handed drug policies — a clear message emerges: our neighbors are paying a heavy price for our marijuana laws, which account for 70% of the cartels’ profits.
In a sense, we’ve been exporting the worst consequences of prohibition to our southern neighbor by forcing marijuana to remain a business for thugs and criminals. Just like alcohol prohibition, marijuana prohibition causes more harm than the drug itself. The violence in Mexico has forced its government to face that reality; our politicians should pay close attention.
H.R. 2943, legislation in Congress that seeks to remove federal penalties for marijuana possession, is currently in committee. Please visit mpp.org/federal-action to ask your member of Congress for his or her support.
Tagged with: decriminalization and Mexico by the author
47 comments
YEA 5 GRAMS ,YIPPEE
WooHoo! Way to go Mexico Policy Project!
Amen, this is a great start to intelligent government and social reform.
I have been saying this for years and NOW it seems that maybe I was right. Unfortunatly I must go to court on monday for cannabis and a few smoking utinsels. As soon as we legalize there will be a huge drop in demand for mexico’s weed. If we can even grow just a few plants that will keep that money in the U.S. where it belongs. But big money is still fighting to keep all cannabis illegal because that is money they have yet to figure out how to steal.
Allow us to grow our own, so that we may use that extra money in our pockets to spend on other things, thereby providing a boost to the economy.
I hope that Obama would be serious about this and really listen. He can’t just say no with a nervous laugh and walk away throwing money to the problem.
[...] original here: Mexico Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession — MPP Blog Share and [...]
Mexico’s war on drug trafficking has led to the arrest of more than 70,000 people in the past three years. Now the nation’s prisons, which were already considered overcrowded, are on the brink of chaos.
Mexico is extraditing as many drug criminals as possible to the United States (about 100 each year).
http://www.newsweek.com/id/212942
I feel this will show our leaders and these freakin big corp lobbists that this law MUST change. Many countries have seen the failure in this war on people. With their pressure and our pressure from within the USA maybe this madness can be stopped. Our leaders are just going to have to realise , taking lobbists money and ignoring the American people and other countries just wont be tolerated any more. Greed is not a reason to ruin others lives anymore.
STOP THIS MADNESS !! LEGALIZE CANNABIS NOW !!
Meantime, private prisons continue to run our country’s policies.
well, our country better listen to mexico, or else in a couple of years maybe 2 or 3 our country will be on the brink of chaos.
oooo and im happy for wut Mexico did, im glad that they understand this failure… Thank you mexico for doin the right thing.
Ben,
70% profits from marijuana sales by the cartels is inaccurate.
What would be a good limit for California people to possess?
oh scary thought just hit me! What if down the line MEXICO legalizes all drugs? If they do that…guess what..the violence in Mexico WILL be here! Is that the reason our leaders push so hard to keep their drug laws in place? They keep the violence there we keep the WOD’s and prison complex going here? Maybe I stretching it ,but some how makes sense to me. If thats the case, we here in the USA better think really hard and fast about this or we could have AL CAPONS all over again here. I mean, would you as a cartel just move all your buisness here?
I dont know. Any thoughts on this? Do I have an arguement ?
Mike #13;
It just needs to be legal ..period, decrim does nothing to stop black market. Mexicos decrim is a step in the right direction but its not going to stop the “illegality” of cannabis. Whether it be 5 grams or 500 pounds, people are still buying an illegal product. Ok so …you dont get busted for it but the violence and huge profit for it is still in place.
Decrim of 5 grams is ‘personal use’. If it were decrim for 500 ponunds for…lol , ‘personal use’ well at that point I think you would be selling ..right? I think the small amount of decrim is to keep it as ‘personal use’ . I mean even an OZ. of would be a problem for lawmakers. How much of that would you smoke, how much would you resale? If you resale your commiting a crime according to law?
I dont know, I just see decrim as a non solution here in the usa. I think depending on the amount decrimed it just gives the law the opportunity to create more sellers and create more busts,thus resulting in more tax money going to their state or county for more drug arrests.
No?Yes?
Yeah, thats waz up. I remember when I was younger, I went to mexico D.F. for vacation and the when we got to my uncles neighborhood, I was was walking with with my sister, and causins by the sidewalk around the block. And right when we look at made a left turn and look at our left, we saw like five heads smoking pot right there and a party right next to it. I was LMAO….I wish i smoked there, but I was to young like 14 and i was a lil afraid if them trying to do something to me….you know I never been there so I didn’t want to risk it. But this time I hope I can go this year so I can SMOKE ME some LALA LOL…..
I agree that decriminalization will not solve the current problems in the U.S. However, I believe it would be beneficial to enact it, let’s say now for arguments sake, and while in a ‘decriminalization limbo’ we discuss the options of legalization, taxation, personal grow, medical uses, restrictions, etc. That would bide time to work out details, while concurrently reducing the numbers of arrests, jail time, and pain currently experienced by so many. One last note, I do think that 5 grams is rather minimalistic, but at least Mexico is trying, whereas we are not.
This law isn’t going to change a thing in Mexico. The problem is in America! If you want to smoke in Mexico before this law… I bet it was a REAL problem (sarcastically).
Wake up you fools. We give the cartels a reason to grow marijuana. We need to be allowed in America to grow marijuana for personal use.
Trog#17;
I do agree that decrim here in the US would help get us to legalization. I just want people understand its not a solution to prohibition. So what,you could use without fear of arrests but doesnt change a thing.
Yes decrim in Mexico is more than what our hard headed leaders are willing to do. I just wonder what our leaders response will be to this change there. Will they throw more money and lives at this failed war, or will they think of starting to listen to WeThePeople and work WITH Mexico on changing policies?
We will see.
ROE #14.
No need to worry. Remember, ‘As America Goes – So Goes The World’. Most the rest of the world looks to us to see how we do things. That’s why mexico has had such a problem changing the rules re drugs. They can’t get things changed without a lot of shit from the US government. You can bet you bottom dollar, as soon as WE legalize (and we will), most other countries will fall in line.
Big D from WA #20;
Yes Our leaders do pressure and influence many many countries around the world…but, The way things are looking these days, othercountries seem to be beating the USA to the punch. I mean it looks as thought these other countries will legalize first and the US will follow, that is if tread keep going the way they are.
Yes in the end,we will end this madness,whether we are first or last is no matter as long as we end it.
How much longer can these US politicians hold out on decriminalizing, regulating and taxing when the rest of the world seems to be ahead of the all mighty USA in regards to cannabis reform?!?!?!
Even our friends in Mexico have beat us to the punch!!!!
What a shame!!!
Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed!!!
It may not be a big deal to some of you but it is action and that’s O.K. with me.
I am in San Antonio and we have a been a hub for marijuana distribution throughout the US for decades.
San Antonio drug users have been on the front lines of this drug war for a long time.
We have had and do have more than our fair share of drug violence and death.
Anyone who has lived here for any length of time, that is a marijuana user and buys from the black market, knows that the drug cartels always control our streets.
It’s a sure fire bet that almost all the pot you can find on the street comes from the drug cartels.
We used to be able to find many outlets that were selling pot from homegrown operations of people who had no affiliation with the cartels, to the people who transported pot into the city from other states where independent Americans were growing the pot on American soil.
But in the past two decade everyone has been forced out of the chain and now all we have is marijuana that is property of the cartels.
I am tired of being a criminal because of these people.
I am tired of being persecuted by the American government.
I am tired of being stereotyped by the media.
I am tired of being humiliated by the entertainment industry.
I am tired of being exploited by the prison industry.
I am tired of being excluded as fellow citizens in other states use marijuana legally.
I am tired of being ridiculed by non users with false facts.
I am tired of being blamed for other users mistakes.
I am tired of being accused of being immoral compared to someone elses standards.
I am tired of being a prisoner of everyones drug war profits.
Its a very good thing that Mexico has done this.
I am waiting now to see if they can take that next step and go for total legalization.
Once they realize that they have left behind the biggest and most dangerous pack of lies ever perpetrated on innocent people maybe they will take that step too.
We are still not being heard by those in power. Not one word on any news channel about Mexico’s law change. Who is in charge of the sonsorship that is preventing any cannabis news from the airwaves? Our own goverenment is. This is good news but Mexico did not go far enough. They should have allowed at least three to four ounces at any given time for personel use only. And they should have allowed a few plants also. That way if every one that smokes growes their own stash there would be no more arrests for sales. America should wake up. After Mexico legalizes drugs all the violence will cross the border to the U.S. Watch
I feel like Bill Murray in that flick with Richard Dreyfus.
Baby steps, baby steps….
This is a great start. I mean, it isn’t the main goal, but you know what they say about the thousand mile journey…
I’m glad that Mexico did this, and I personally think this is more or less a test for drug reform on their soil. They want to see how and what the general populace will do with it. I predict that if all goes well, you will see packs of Jamaican reds next to the Marlboro reds. I think the first state to follow suit will be CA (of course). To answer #13′s question, I think maybe somewhere between 4 joints and a quarter would be fair. The first comment at the top said “4 joints, big whoop,” but I say it’s better than nothing.
has anyone really compiled a list of all the jobs that would be created if marijuana was legalized? i mean think about it…. both the marijuana industry and hemp industry…… if the obama administration really wanted to create jobs and economic wealth and do it quickly they would legalize it….. maybe we need to do a marijuana march in DC sometime….. chanting yes we cannabis…..we can no longer stand back and let our country go down the shitter when there is an easy way to fix it
I hate to say it, but it may come to Mexico legalizing drugs,then the violence crossing the border to the USA. It may take serious problems to wake people up here, enough to flood our leaders with outrage from all kinds of people. Its sad, there are two enemies here. Our govermnets leaders(usa ) and the cartels. Neither want to or will give ground and everyone inthe way of this will be hurt or killed. Seems most people never open their eyes until the SHIT hits the fan in their own back yards.
Now there are 3 countries who are LIGHT YEARS ahead of america on drug policy!!!!!!!!
The Lockerbie bomber was released to the outrage of many.
Their outrage is ironic in that this makes room for another harmless pot smoker……….
Hey # 23:
I’m tired of my sister who drinks wine, but condemns my medicinal use of pot; I’m tired of my cousin and various friends who claim to be school teachers but teach “cannabis = bad because it’s illegal” but booze = OK because it’s legal”.
CANNABIS PROHIBITION, FOLKS, IS A
MASTERPIECE !!!!!!!!
IN THE ART OF BRAINWASHING!!!!!!!!!!!
Until we can get through decriminalized to legalized we are still dehumanized.
Clarence: Good luck on Monday.
R.O.E.: “Do I have an argument ?” Tough to decide on that one however, I lean towards Yes.
“Ben,
70% profits from marijuana sales by the cartels is inaccurate.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I bet a good bit over half their money comes from marijuana sales. They smuggle in thousands of tons of pot. Profit margins on cocaine, meth and heroin are much higher, but total consumption in the US of all those drugs combined is in the hundreds of tons compared to many thousands of tons of marijuana. It’s true that the second most commonly used illegal drug is cocaine, but the Mexican cartels are only middlemen for cocaine and for every cocaine user there are several times as many pot smokers in this country.
I used to work as a public defender in a county with a major interstate highway cutting through it that runs across most of the country. It’s a major drug pipeline used to bring drugs smuggled in from Mexico from the Western states where it comes in out to Eastern states, and our city, county, and state do major drug interdiction activities on the short stretch of highway running through the county, pulling vehicles over left and right and searching them. I’ve handled many thousands of pounds worth of drug mule cases. The public defender office gets almost all the drug mule cases because very few of these people caught have any money, and we were always in court so we were well aware of what was going on in the few drug mule cases we didn’t get. What we would see with drug mule cases is that the pot cases dwarfed all others. Ridiculous amounts of Mexican brickweed were being seized, load after load, several hundreds of pounds at a time, sometimes tons at a time. Next came the cocaine cases, but there weren’t nearly as many of those seizures and the loads were much smaller on average. Then came meth, and heroin came in in a far distant fourth place. What we saw pretty much mirrored the ratio of one drug to another in the government’s supply estimates. There are just massive amounts of marijuana out there and really not so much of the other stuff.
Illegal drug production and supply estimates vary a lot and probably aren’t very accurate. But according to all the estimates, Mexico produces more marijuana than any other country in the world, mostly all for export to the U.S. The estimate for 2007 was 15,500 metric tons, 15.5 billion grams, and most of it came here. The feds will seize around 1,300 metric tons of pot every year within our borders. The vast majority of that is always Mexican pot. There is no accounting of what state and local authorities seize every year, but I would not be surprised at all to learn that it was at least several hundred metric tons if not more. They seize huge amounts on our highways and they make some big seizures at stash houses where tons of pot are stored for later delivery, not to mention all the other multiple pound busts that occur all over the country.
When you hear of these seizures of several hundred pounds at a time or tons at a time, usually that’s going to be Mexican pot unless it’s a seizure up around the Canadian border. The seizures aren’t generally as large for American grown because it’s normally produced in much smaller scale grows to begin with than Mexican grown pot. In fact, it’s getting to the point where most of the really big outdoor grows (big for clandestine grows) left in the US are actually Mexican grows on our soil.
In some parts of the country there probably isn’t much Mexican pot. If you live somewhere like Oregon or Washington state or Northern California you probably don’t see much Mexican pot (grown in Mexico) and it may seem to you that no one really smokes the stuff. And even if you are in an area where there is a lot of Mexican pot it may be that you know growers and/or hang around with people who only smoke fancy indoor grown marijuana and it may seem to you like no one smokes Mexican pot. And of course if you are smoking mids grown outdoors, you may think hippies are growing it but increasingly chances are good it’s really coming from cartel grows on our own soil.
And you need to know that there are parts of the country where Mexican pot, bricks from Mexico, absolutely dominates the market. I’m in the South where Mexican pot is dirt cheap and there is so much of it that you can actually shop around and find some that’s pretty darned good for very little money. It’s hard for people in my area to justify paying several times as much for hydro weed that’s probably not several times as good as what they can get for a whole lot less. What we see in court when police come with their little evidence bags with pot seized in simple possession cases is almost always Mexican pot. I see those evidence bags all the time and I know well the difference between Mexican and premium grade marijuana. There are people around here that will pay $120 a quarter for indoor grown pot but most won’t because they can get a couple of ounces of Mexican for the same price.
Just don’t think there isn’t a huge market for Mexican pot in this country and that the cartels aren’t making huge money from both what they grow in Mexico and what they grow here on our own soil. They’re even starting to get in on the indoor growing game in a big way. These guys dominate wholesale illegal drug sales in this country and like powerful corporations they fight like crazy to increase their market share every year.
Estimates vary on what percentage of cartel earnings are from marijuana sales. Estimates from our government put it at somewhere between 60 and 75%. The Mexican government has been saying for a long time that pot is the biggest money maker for the cartels. Our government is really just starting to acknowledge this. I think they wanted everyone to think the big money was in drugs like cocaine and other drugs to help justify all the money they were blowing on the drug war. I’m glad they’re finally acknowledging that the black market for illegal drugs is mostly just a black market for marijuana because that makes our job easier. Now it is easier for us to make the case that if we want to cut the legs out from under drug trafficking organizations, we should legalize marijuana and regulate it similar to alcohol. I think it would be a devastating blow especially to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. They already bring in and distribute most all the cocaine, meth and heroin consumed in this country. When we take marijuana from them they’ll lose most of their income and they can’t just switch to trafficking in these other drugs because they already supply most all U.S. demand for these drugs. Their vast distribution networks for marijuana make perfect conduits through which to move their other drugs. They dominate the wholesale illegal drug business in this country, supplying most of the illegal drugs sold in the black market, and when we get marijuana going through legal channels the black market for illegal drugs will lose most of its participants. Most are there because that is where the pot is bought and sold and when they are no longer involved with the black market these drug trafficking organizations aren’t going to have all these pot sellers they can tap to sell their other drugs and all these millions of pot consumers that they can safely offer much more addictive drugs because since they are already breaking the drug laws themselves they aren’t going to go to the police and tell them their pot dealers are offering them cocaine or meth or whatever. Liquor stores don’t sell these other drugs and neither would pot stores. Depriving Mexican cartels of illegal marijuana sales would deprive them of most of their income and make it harder for them to get their other far worse drugs out to end consumers
It looks like several of my paragraph breaks disappeared in that last post when I ran it through a web based spell checker. Sorry if it’s hard to read.
Is this a hoax or what? I see nothing on this on several news sites I checked.
Hey TKDietz # 34:
In your experience, when someone is busted for pot, why doesn’t the pot show up at trial as evidence? Where does it go, honestly? Thanks in advance.
TKDietz #34 ;
Man you really nailed it. Mant of us outhere already know much of this and the general public is starting to see this also now.
Now with all that being said…Why is our government being so damned hard headed? Why not just start the process of legalizing cannabis and cut the legs out from under these cartels? Why not end the suffering and madness this all brings to those across the border and here in the USA? Is it really just greed on the part of some politicians and Lwa enforcement? Is it the public has been brain washed and havent come to their senses yet? A combination of all? I feel its the latter,but thats just me and my limited veiw of things.
What say you TKDietz? And how can we activists end this faster?
Fact! It is the greed of polititions and the task force ran by D.E.A. and local law enforcement. Fact! Every time money or drugs or anything taken, is used , sold, or auctioned off. Proceeds go to new cars, new equipment, and many times it lines the pockets of those who took it. I think the cops are learning how to grow weed themselves. Why else would they not pull my plants when they were taken along with all of my high times mags?
this story is out of date, false, and misleading. dont know why they posting this bs. most of thess persons dont know beans about mexico. the current president Phillipe Calderone has declared war on the ‘drug cartels’ the same ones who bring you your cheap weed, coke, and most important is the cheApest crude oil on the planet. The pipeline runs right to washington from
they posting it because Mpp’s site hasent had any new news in weeks lol If I log back on and see that medical marijuana is making groud in iowa again I am gonna snap that was posted on the 3rd? it is the 23rd today. So 20 days and not a new news story common.
You guys are right, decriminalization is meaningless if it is still purchased illegally. When you can buy legitimately and 5 grams is legal to carry, Now were talking. Marijuana users are the only constituent who want to be taxed, why don’t they take taxes from people who want to be taxed. Obama will never here, “TAX ME, TAX ME PLEASE!” from anyone other than pot smokers. Let’s put money in the hands of the common man!
Mark,
In my experience it usually does show up at the trial. Maybe things work differently in your state, but in simple possession cases in my area the officers always show up with the pot they seized. Sometimes they won’t bring out in big drug cases, which is actually fine with me. I’ve been involved with drug mule cases where they’ll bring several hundred pounds of pot out and stack it up in front of the jury and that’s not really helpful to our clients. It’s usually been sitting in some evidence shack somewhere for a year or so and it’s all moldy and smelly and of course there’s just so much of it it makes the guy caught with it look really bad.
R.O.E. said:
“Now with all that being said…Why is our government being so damned hard headed? Why not just start the process of legalizing cannabis and cut the legs out from under these cartels? ”
They won’t do it until a clear majority of American voters support legalization. You know only something like 5 or 6 people in Congress will openly support legalization today, less than 2% of them, even though over 40% of American voters want marijuana to be legalized and regulated similar to alcohol. Surely a lot more of them are for legalization, but they’re afraid that coming out for legalization would be political suicide.
There was one national Zogby poll this year where 52% said they were for legalization, but several other national polls this year that came out before and after that Zogby poll only put support in the low to mid forties. Support for legalization is growing every year and in a few years it looks like it’s going to get to the point that the polls are consistently coming back with the majority supporting legalization. When that happens we’re going to start seeing more and more politicians coming out for legalization and at some point marijuana will be legalized. It’s just not going to happen though without a solid majority of the voting public being for it. Without strong majority support not many politicians are going to go out on that limb.
Our main focus really needs to be getting the people on board with legalization. That’s the key. That’s how we’ll win. Luckily, we have the “age out” effect on our side. The old people who grew up before marijuana became popular are almost all strongly opposed to legalization, but they are steadily dying off and being replaced by people much more open to legalization. The momentum is going our way. We just need to capitalize on it as best we can. We need to convince as many people as possible that the ban does more harm than good.
We also need to work on getting young people to the polls, even for mid term elections. A high percentage of young voters, particularly those 18 to 29, support legalization. The problem is that these younger voters aren’t very good at showing up to vote. The old geezers who in most all cases are strongly opposed to legalization tend to be people who vote every time the polls open up. Their votes more than cancel out all the support we have from young voters, and politicians know this. They are a lot more afraid of older voters than younger voters. So, aside from just convincing people that we need to legalize marijuana, it would be great if we could get younger people to the polls so that politicians will fear them as much as they fear older voters.
I find it BS that they have to go to drug treatment after the third offense..
The logic seems to be “WOW they keep on getting caught therefore they are addicted!”
HOWEVER, I am sure that the vast majority of the time, the cop will simply take their stash and smash it on the ground, which is the case in many cities in the US. (Still BS. but at least they didn’t get “charged” with anything, aside from their destroyed stash)
Thanks harry aslinger for this,yea mexicans are making profits and murdering innocent people at the same time
mexican cartels*
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