Message boards all over Mexico are lit up with the news: Drugs are legal in Mexico.
As is often the case with 98% of the information on the Internet: it is simply not true. No. Worse than that. It is a lie. And people should know better.
What is true is that, as of Friday, the possession of limited amounts of five drugs will no longer be a criminal offense.
The correct announcement is: "Mexico decriminalizes possession of small amounts of five drugs. Nothing changes."
And the response should be: big deal.
The only country in the western hemisphere with enough police and snitches to deal with the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs is Cuba. Free societies have trouble paying for enough police to deal with assaults and burglaries -- let alone tracking down dopeheads.
Mexico is no exception.
The police have never had resources to track down Mexico's two largest class of recreational drug users: 1) tourists and 2) middle class Mexican "teenagers."
The authorities generally do not care what tourists do to themselves. If they want to rot their systems with meth and coke, most police could care less. That was true in the past under the old law and it will be true in the future under the new law.
Mexico does care about its growing domestic user market, though. Too many young people (and people who cannot escape the gravitational pull of remaining an eternal teenager) have become users in Mexico. The government wants to stop the problem.
Unfortunately, this law is not going to make any difference.
The limits are not meant to be generous:
As is often the case with 98% of the information on the Internet: it is simply not true. No. Worse than that. It is a lie. And people should know better.
What is true is that, as of Friday, the possession of limited amounts of five drugs will no longer be a criminal offense.
The correct announcement is: "Mexico decriminalizes possession of small amounts of five drugs. Nothing changes."
And the response should be: big deal.
The only country in the western hemisphere with enough police and snitches to deal with the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs is Cuba. Free societies have trouble paying for enough police to deal with assaults and burglaries -- let alone tracking down dopeheads.
Mexico is no exception.
The police have never had resources to track down Mexico's two largest class of recreational drug users: 1) tourists and 2) middle class Mexican "teenagers."
The authorities generally do not care what tourists do to themselves. If they want to rot their systems with meth and coke, most police could care less. That was true in the past under the old law and it will be true in the future under the new law.
Mexico does care about its growing domestic user market, though. Too many young people (and people who cannot escape the gravitational pull of remaining an eternal teenager) have become users in Mexico. The government wants to stop the problem.
Unfortunately, this law is not going to make any difference.
The limits are not meant to be generous:
- 5 grams of marijuana — the equivalent of about four joints, I am told
- 1/2 gram of cocaine -- the equivalent of about 4 "lines," I am told
- 50 milligrams of heroin -- no idea what that equates to
- 40 milligrams of methamphetamine -- I doubt a meth-head could calculate it
- 0.015 milligrams of LSD -- probably enough to make you wish you had skipped this line
And because this law change is designed to show a nation that its government cares about them, all arrests for possession will be accompanied by a suggestion to seek treatment. Caught a third time? Treatment is mandatory. That'll show 'em.
I have talked about the drug wars in several prior posts (drugs -- the summary). There is no need to rehash the principles.
The killing is not going to end until full legalization takes place. Anything illegal creates a falsely-priced market. The government effectively adds a cost to the product, making it expensive enough for criminals to kill their rivals and bribe authorities.
Legalization will drop the price, destroy the monopoly, and people will stop dying over who owns what territory.
Will more people use drugs? Maybe. No one knows. And I realize that scares middle-class American families. But middle-class children will not become addicted to drugs because they are legal no more than teen-aged boys will drive sanely if a speed limit is imposed.
But there will be a trade off. Will fewer people die and will some legitimacy be restored to governments? I can almost guarantee it.
But changing the possession laws does nada for any of those steps. Even the Noble Experimet of alcohol prohibition never attempted to deal with possession of alcohol. People often forget that.
It was the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption that was illegal. The same theory behind drug prohibition.
Rather than waste our time even discussing this insignificant change in Mexican law, we should be pressing the Obama and Harper administrations to grab this opportunity and simply repeal all federal laws relating to illegal drugs. The states and provinces could then take their own courses.
The time could not be better than now.
I have talked about the drug wars in several prior posts (drugs -- the summary). There is no need to rehash the principles.
The killing is not going to end until full legalization takes place. Anything illegal creates a falsely-priced market. The government effectively adds a cost to the product, making it expensive enough for criminals to kill their rivals and bribe authorities.
Legalization will drop the price, destroy the monopoly, and people will stop dying over who owns what territory.
Will more people use drugs? Maybe. No one knows. And I realize that scares middle-class American families. But middle-class children will not become addicted to drugs because they are legal no more than teen-aged boys will drive sanely if a speed limit is imposed.
But there will be a trade off. Will fewer people die and will some legitimacy be restored to governments? I can almost guarantee it.
But changing the possession laws does nada for any of those steps. Even the Noble Experimet of alcohol prohibition never attempted to deal with possession of alcohol. People often forget that.
It was the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption that was illegal. The same theory behind drug prohibition.
Rather than waste our time even discussing this insignificant change in Mexican law, we should be pressing the Obama and Harper administrations to grab this opportunity and simply repeal all federal laws relating to illegal drugs. The states and provinces could then take their own courses.
The time could not be better than now.
