Monday, 24 August 2009
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Mexico legalizes "small amounts" of weed, coke, and heroin
America's southern neighbor has officially legalized small amounts of weed, coke, and heroin:
Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.The law sets out maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution; the law goes into effect on Friday.
Anyone caught with drug amounts under the personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory — although no penalties for noncompliance are specified.
Here are the exact amounts of drugs allowed: "The maximum amount of marijuana considered to be for “personal use” under the new law is 5 grams — the equivalent of about four marijuana cigarettes. Other limits are half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams of LSD."
What do you think - is this a good thing for Mexico? What about for the United States?
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Comments (34)
"United Stages" haha lol.
Umm. people can do what they want. I don't think its necisary to legalize it anyways because people do it allllll the time.
i don't think it's good at all.
awesome.
I think this is a wonderful idea, all except for the heroin and coke. But it's better than mandatory minimum sentences. People (in the U.S. especially) need more education, awareness, and treatment for drug abuse, not punishment.
well people here do it all the time anyway, i don't see how legalizing it will help or hurt things. I guess it's sort of like drinking, while it is legal for people 21 and up to drink you can't be over a certain set limit...
I think it's great. I think you should be able to put into your body what you wish. I think they couldn't have come up with a better law, the third time mandatory treatment is a fantastic idea.
Hopefully this will work as well as they expect and maybe then America might consider it.
I don't smoke pot anymore but I think it's dumb that were wasting our tax dollars to punish people who are only hurting themselves.
Woohoo! I'm going to Cancun now! XD
Anyway, I agree with the charges being dropped for weed, but I think coke and heroin are a little too extreme. I can see how this method would be better than the States penal codes because we're all about detainment and punishment, not therapy and support. This seems to be the reason why the U.S. has such a high percentage of prisoners who end up returning to prison. I mean, look at Norway and their judicial guidelines, it's practically the same way as Mexico's new laws, and they have the lowest prisoner rate in the world.
yeah, they legalized to carry some drugs for personal use but it is still a felony to sell it or consume it on public.
whatever, drugslords rules mexico so I think they have a lot to do with this
Hmm, it seems like this has happened before... during prohibition...
Mexico is trying to do a few things by enacting this law, one of them being to attract American's looking for a fun time (namely students) and to curb the incredible violence that comes with cartels, which is Naive.
Cartels are about money, and the only way they can get money is if they sell drugs to Americans. For instance, if you could sell a pound of weed for $500 in Mexico, but if you smuggle it into the US for $5000, you are going to smuggle it. There is no way for anyone to stop huge profits for something that costs pennies to grow.
Instead what you are going to see is exactly what happened in the 70's with NYC. Drugs were everywhere, and it almost was as if it were legal, however, what you saw was not communal love, but a society on the fringes a complete melt down. Weed is one thing. Coke, heroine, meth, things with intense addictions, more so then anything we have encountered, will lead to a degradation of a society. Think about what happened after the hippies came, or the opium wars, or NYC during the 70s. Hard drugs (I do not consider weed to have enough consequences to society then hard drugs, mainly because as opposed to speed which makes you go out in a frenzy, weed just makes you lazy) are bad for a society as a whole because of the affects it has on people within the society.
wow. did not even know about this. how is it possible that something so controversial passed without knowing about it??!! esp in a border state.
I guess its more a "wait&see" experiment. Ultimately these drugs are mind altering and addiction is a cruel, debilitating curse. But Mexico's violence might be quelled a bit with this measure. So let's see what happens and hope that it slows the exodus of drugs into the US (something like 80% of all cocaine & meth in the US comes over the Mexican border) and cartel violence. I also hope it stops the desire to get drugs, a la theory of psychological reactance
@TrueBritt@xanga - and @Yipz - expressed my own thoughts perfectly. They had to try something with all the violence that has been happening.
You arent going to stop it. Might as well legalize it and tax the hell out of it. We do that with legal drugs, like alcohol and tobacco. Depressants and stimulants. They are addictive, and we see many thousands that are alcoholics, or addicted to the nicotene, have COPD, emphysema, etc. If people are hell bent on destroying their bodies, they will find a way. And to the poster who says, "people are only punishing themselves" try telling that to the parents of a child hit by a drunk driver, or someone high. Try telling that to the now paraplegic or quadraplegic person who is banished to life in a wheel chair, steering with their teeth and depending on someone to feed and bathe and clean them, because some idiot crashed into them while drunk or high.
It's obvious we can't stop the use of drugs, we tried that with prohibition. If people were responsible with their use of drugs, it would be one thing. But they are not, and blame the drugs or anyone around them when they get out of control.
Legalizing the harder, more addictive drugs is foolish. The Mexican drug cartels are far more insidious and powerful than the Mob in the U.S. ever thought of being. No wonder half the Mexican police are on their payroll.
i wonder how fast i can move to mexico..
although the cops in my town barely care anymore if they see people passing a joint. they just shake their heads disapprovingly and leave.
That's awesome!
Not good at all.
My boyfriend is going to have no problem taking me to Mexico now. Personally I feel weed should be legal here in the US. Other drugs I'm not so sure about.
its better to buy your drugs somewhere safe than some random person. i wouldnt mind paying taxes on weed if it means a better education system for my daughter and a safe environment for me to be able to buy it.
I can't imagine a senario where heroin would be "better".
The problem in Mexico is they don't have the resources to fight drugs... they are focusing all they have on the dealers, and are still losing big time. People are being assassinated in the government, hijackings are common and there is an overall loss of law and order. This looks like a desperate measure to try to focus resources on a crucial restoration of law and order.
GOOD! LESS LIKELY TO BE ABUSED REALLY. i WONT GET INTO MY THEORIES...BUT LOOKY HERE: MAKE SMAAL AMOUNTS LEGAL, AND IF PEOPLE ARE CAUGHT SELLING CHARGE THEM OUT THE ASS. MAKE IT A HUGE PUNISHMENT SO THEY DONT DO IT.
EHHH WHATEVER. I SAY LEGALIZE IT. WHY NOT? EATING DISORDERS ARE AN ADDICTION AND FOOD IS LEGAL. UMM PERSCRIPTION MEDICINE??? YEAH HUGE PROBLEM. THATS LEGALIZED. WHY NOT LEGALIZE EVERYTHING ELSE.
A D D I C T I O N IS A D D I C T I O N!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE HEARING ABOUT LEGAL THIS LEGAL THAT, BLAH BLAH BLAH. WHAT ABOUT CIGGS? WHAT ABOUT (ALCOHOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) CMON PEOPLE. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.
----NICE POST BY THE WAY. :) THANKS
@Yipz - agreed. that was my first thought anyways... since USA made it harder to travel now with the whole passport issue, im sure it has cut down some of the usual traffic that they usually get from tourists and students in san diego, with this new law i'm sure they'll get a ton of visitors now.
badddd idea!
gansters will be out of income from trafficking drugs!
another government take over!!!
@OBSESSiVE_BEAUTiES@xanga - lololol actually i really did like your post and i agree with you.
I think Mexico is trying an idea that seems like a good one that promise a greater positive outcome than negative. Since people usually go to jail for such small amounts. Also, those "personal use" quantities seem lower enough not to be addicting (more so for the weed than the other drugs).
The U.S., Americans, are too greedy, about a lot of things(drugs included).
i really don't think it's a good idea. people will always abuse their privileges, and things could get out of control fast if people aren't punished for excessive use. though, i guess this article only mentions legal limits. eek. this can't be good.