Pubdate: Wed, 10 Jul 2013
Source: Press, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2013 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
Contact:  http://www.press.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/349
Page: B6

FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT CAMPAIGNING TO LEGALISE POT

(Reuters) - Former Mexican president Vicente Fox took his crusade to
legalise cannabis to San Francisco yesterday, joining advocates to
urge the United States and his own country to decriminalise the sale
and recreational use of cannabis.

Fox met for three hours with the advocates, including Steve DeAngelo,
the Oakland-based executive director of California's largest cannabis
dispensary, and former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively, who hopes to
create a Seattle-based pot brand now that Washington state has
legalised recreational use.

Legalisation, Fox said, was the only way to end the violence of
Mexican drug cartels, which he blamed on America's war on drugs. "The
cost of the war is becoming unbearable  too high for Mexico, for Latin
America and for the rest of the world," he said.

Every day, he said, 40 young people are killed in drug-related
violence.

Fox's position on legalising drugs has evolved over time since the
days when he co-operated with US efforts to tamp down production in
Mexico during his 2000-06 presidential term.

He has been increasingly vocal in his opposition to current policies,
backing two earlier efforts to legalise cannabis in Mexico.

Mexico's current president, Enrique Pena Nieto, has opposed
legalisation.

However, he recently said he would consider world opinion on the
matter, particularly in light of recent voter-approved initiatives to
legalise cannabis in Washington state and Colorado for recreational
use.

Fox said he had signed on to attend and help develop an international
summit later this month in Mexico to map out a strategy to end
cannabis prohibition.

Participants scheduled to attend the three-day meeting, starting on
July 18 in San Cristobal, include an American surgeon, the dean of
Harvard's School of Public Health and a Mexican congressman who plans
to introduce a bill to legalise cannabis in Mexico.

The bill, which Fox expects to be introduced by Mexican lawmaker
Fernando Belaunzaran, would legalise adult recreational use of
cannabis, Fox said.

Support for legalising cannabis in the US has been
growing.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have passed medical
marijuana laws, according to the pro-legalisation National
Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. But the drug remains
illegal under federal law.

Lifting the prohibition on cannabis in Mexico, however, appears to
face more of an uphill battle.

Mexican lawmakers have rejected previous legalisation efforts, and
polls have shown little popular support.
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