Pubdate: Sun, 12 Sep 2010
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Copyright: 2010 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/qFJNhZNm
Website: http://www.stltoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418
Author: Tim Johnson, McClatchy Newspapers
Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19)

Once-Taboo Topic Gains Ground in Nation Exhausted by Crime War

SURGING VIOLENCE SPURS TALK OF LEGALIZING DRUGS

MEXICO CITY - A debate about legalizing marijuana and possibly other 
drugs -- once a taboo suggestion -- is percolating in Mexico, a 
nation exhausted by runaway violence and a deadly drug war.

The debate is only likely to grow more animated if Californians 
approve an initiative on Nov. 2 to legalize marijuana for 
recreational use in their state.

Mexicans are keeping a close eye on the vote, seeing it as a bellwether.

"If they vote 'yes' to approve the full legalization of marijuana, I 
think it will have a radical impact in Mexico," said Jorge Hernandez 
Tinajero, a political scientist at the National Autonomous University.

Discussion about legalization flew onto the agenda last month, the 
outcome of President Felipe Calderon's pressing need to win more 
public support for waging war against criminal organizations 
profiting hugely from drug trafficking.

As he held a series of open forums with politicians and civic leaders 
about faltering security, Calderon suddenly found himself amid a 
groundswell of suggestions that legalization -- which he described as 
"absurd" -- should be considered.

Among those throwing their weight behind legalization was former 
President Vicente Fox, a member of Calderon's own conservative 
National Action Party.

"We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale 
of drugs," Fox wrote on his blog during the series of forums.

"Legalizing in this sense does not mean that drugs are good or don't 
hurt those who consume. Rather, we have to see it as a strategy to 
strike and break the economic structure that allows the mafias to 
generate huge profits in their business."

Calderon immediately said Mexico couldn't act on its own to legalize.

"If drugs are not legalized in the world, or if drugs are not 
legalized at least in the United States, this is simply absurd, 
because the price of drugs is not determined in Mexico. The price of 
drugs is determined by consumers in Los Angeles, or in New York, or 
in Chicago or Texas," he said.

Such public debate would have been largely unthinkable a few years 
ago. Since Calderon came to office in late 2006, however, a national 
gloom has descended on Mexico from unending cartel violence and a 
death toll topping 28,000. The grim mood has provided fertile ground 
for public figures who think that legalization would undercut the 
power of the drug cartels.

Among them are business tycoons such as billionaire Ricardo Salinas 
Pliego, who controls broadcaster TV Azteca, and retailer Grupo Elektra.

With his own pro-legalization statement, Fox aligned with another 
former president, Ernesto Zedillo, who suggested last year that 
prohibition isn't working.

Still, several analysts said debate about legalization -- coming most 
strongly from the political left -- was an attempt to needle Calderon 
as much as an exploration of whether legalization is feasible.

Hernandez Tinajero said he thinks that Mexican society may not be 
ready for such moves, but that the California initiative on marijuana 
would impel further debate.

"Whatever the result may be, it will have a positive impact on 
Mexico," he said, and give way to "a far more serious discussion."

Experts said they can't fully weigh arguments about the impact that 
legalization of marijuana in California might have on this country of 
111 million, or whether steps toward legalization here would weaken 
drug syndicates.

That's because so little is known publicly about the revenue streams 
of cartels, the extent of production of marijuana, crystal meth and 
heroin, and the range of revenue from other criminal enterprises.

Counternarcotics officials say several Mexican cartels, particularly 
the Familia Michoacana, are deeply involved in marijuana production 
and sales in California.

Alex Kreit, an expert on drug law at the Thomas Jefferson School of 
Law in San Diego, said the fallout from Proposition 19, whichever way 
voters lean, might not be immediate.

Opinion polls show a near toss-up over whether voters will approve or 
reject it.

If the initiative passes, it would have an impact only in localities 
that take steps to permit the cultivation, distribution and sale of 
marijuana, he said.

"If this passes, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden that people who 
are growing marijuana in large amounts are going to be doing so 
legally," he said.

If the initiative loses by a large margin, Kreit said, it could "be 
the death knell" for legalization. If it goes the other way, it could 
'start to create a feeling of inevitability" in the U.S. and Mexico 
toward the legalization of marijuana. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake