Mexico backs off legalizing drug use

MEXICO CITY — Heeding an outcry of criticism, President Vicente Fox retreated Wednesday from supporting a proposed law that would have allowed small amounts of drug use in Mexico without criminal penalties.

Fox's office said he was sending the legislation back to Congress so it could make "necessary corrections to be absolutely clear that in our country the possession and consumption of drugs is and will continue being crimes."

The sudden move, a day after Fox's spokesman said he would sign the bill, follows expressions of alarm from U.S. officials, Mexican church leaders and others that the proposed law could promote more drug use and drug dealing. Some said it might set a bad example of decriminalization.

Under the law, anyone arrested with as much as 25 milligrams of heroin, half a gram of cocaine, five grams of marijuana or similar portions of other serious drugs would be dealt with in an administrative procedure instead of being prosecuted for a crime.

The wider object of the law was empowering local police to help federal police enforce Mexico's drug laws and to have them concentrate on large-scale traffickers and dealers without clogging up the courts with addicts and small-time drug abusers.

The U.S. government Wednesday expressed a rare public objection to an internal Mexican political development, saying anyone caught with illegal drugs in Mexico should be prosecuted or given mandatory drug treatment.

Karen Tandy, chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, met with Mexican officials to express concerns that it could increase trafficking and lure Americans over the border for "drug tourism."

The idea was originally proposed by the Fox administration two years ago as part of its campaign to curtail the growing amount of drug dealing and consumption on Mexico's streets. The bill was passed in the early-morning hours Friday as Congress hurried to wrap up its spring session.

Fox aides said Tuesday that legislators had added language to the bill that may have led to the confusion.

While the original idea was to steer drug addicts into treatment facilities rather than jail, the bill was changed to say any "consumer" caught with the limited amount of drugs would not be prosecuted.

The legislature has adjourned for the summer, and when it comes back, it will have an entirely new lower house and one-third new Senate members following the July 2 elections, which will also make the outgoing Fox a lame duck.

Sen. Jorge Zermeno, of Fox's conservative National Action Party — a supporter of the bill — said he thought Congress would be open to changing the legislation.

The bill contained many points that experts said were positive: It empowered state and local police — not just federal officers — to go after drug dealers, stiffened some penalties, and closed loopholes that dealers had long used to escape prosecution.

Proponents note that current Mexican law already allows charges to be dropped if a person can prove that he or she is an addict.

"The decriminalization of drugs for personal use was already in effect in Mexico," said Hector Larios, the Senate leader for the National Action Party (PAN). "What we've done now is define the quantities" that constitute personal use, he said.

Larios said tourists and others caught with drugs might still be arrested and would be released only after police have determined that the quantity of drugs they were carrying fell within the legal limits.

The legislation had been passed earlier by the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Mexico's Congress.

But the Senate's passage surprised many in Mexico, particularly because Fox's PAN is usually identified with conservative values and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Senate approved the measure 53-26, with most PAN members and members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party voting for it. Senators from the left-leaning Party of the Democratic Revolution opposed it.

Additional information from

The Associated Press and Knight Ridder newspapers

Quantities that were to be decriminalized in Mexico
Drug	Quantity
Opium (raw, to be smoked)	5 grams (gm)
Heroin	25 milligrams (mg)
Marijuana	5 gm
Cocaine	500 mg
LSD	.015 mg
MDA	200 mg
MDMA (Ecstasy)	200 mg
Mescaline	1 gm
Peyote	1 kilogram
Psilocybin (concentrate, pure, active ingredient)	100 mg
Hallucinogenic mushrooms (raw, off the farm)	250 mg
Amphetamines	100 mg
Dexamphetamines	40 mg
Phencyclidine (PCP, or angel dust)	7 mg
Methamphetamines	200 mg
Nalbuphine (synthetic opiate)	10 mg
Source: The Associated Press