In 2009, Mexico enacted a law to decriminalize possession of small amounts of all major narcotics, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and crystal meth. Anyone caught in Mexico with two or three joints or about four lines of cocaine can no longer be arrested, fined or imprisoned. The law clearly states any person dealing narcotics will be sent to prison. Any place that sells drugs will be liable for punishment, a provision that is likely to prevent the opening of any Amsterdam-style "coffee shops" in the country.
The decriminalization law was designed to let the authorities go after the drug traffickers rather than drug users. Now the presidents of several Central American countries are considering similar decriminalization laws, ignoring the fact that Mexico’s drug cartels continue to rake in huge profits.
As for decriminalization, the term is just a euphemism for legalization.
From Borderland Beat:
CENTRAL AMERICA WANTS U.S. COMPENSATION FOR EVERY DRUG SEIZURE AND DRUG RAID
By Mike McDonald
Reuters
March 25, 2012
Guatemalan President Otto Perez on Saturday set out a raft of proposals to tackle rampant drug-fuelled violence in Central America, including decriminalization of narcotics or establishing a regional court to try traffickers.
"The proposal is decriminalization," Perez said at a regional summit to address security throughout the region. "We are talking about creating a legal framework to regulate the production, transit and consumption of drugs."
The discussion reflects growing concern in Central America about the cost of the war on drugs, which is prompting leaders to take an increasingly independent line from the United States, where officials have repeatedly rejected legalizing narcotics.
A retired general, Perez won election in November 2011 promising to crack down on organized crime. But he shifted from his hard-line message shortly after taking office in January, calling for a more open debate on drug policy.
"It's important this is on the discussion table as an alternative to what we've been doing for 40 years without getting the desired results," he said, noting that decriminalization would erode drug cartels' profits. (Borderland Beat: "erode drug cartels’ profits"? He ought to ask his pal Calderon how decriminalization,enacted in Mexico in 2009, is working for Mexico!)
The president added that Central American leaders are considering requiring the United States, the biggest consumer of South American cocaine, to pay the region for drug raids.
"We're talking about economic compensation for every seizure undertaken and also the destruction of marijuana and cocaine plantations," said Perez, a 61-year-old conservative.
Guatemala's murder rate has nearly doubled since 2000 due in part to brutal Mexican drug cartels extending their reach south.
In May 2011, the feared Zetas gang beheaded 27 farm workers in northern Guatemala in a dispute with the farm's owner over cocaine moving from South America to the United States.
Another alternative Central American leaders are mulling is setting up a court with jurisdiction for the region that would hear crimes related to the drug trade like kidnapping, contract killing, and trafficking of people and arms, Perez added.
"This would give breathing space to the justice system because it would relieve pressure on our courts," he said, adding that the court would have its own penal system.
Washington has defended the war on drugs and in recent visits to the region U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano rejected Perez's legalization pitch.
Perez, the founder of Guatemala's right-wing Patriot Party, said Central America was paying too
Heavy a price for the war.
"Our countries are not producers or consumers of drugs," he said. "We are in the middle of the sandwich."
In the past two months alone, Guatemala has confiscated more than 1,000 kilos (2,200 pounds) of cocaine valued at roughly $10,000 per kilo, and destroyed nearly $1 billion worth of poppy plants.
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