Pubdate: Wed, 20 Apr 2016
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2016 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491

LEADER SAYS HE'S OPEN TO LEGALIZING SOME POT

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Tuesday that he is open to 
the legalization of medical marijuana in Mexico and that his 
government would announce new measures in the coming days.

"I am giving voice to those who have [in public forums] expressed the 
necessity of changing the regulatory framework to authorize the use 
of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes," he said in a 
speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Speaking at a special session where world leaders had gathered to 
rethink global strategy in the war on drugs-the first such meeting in 
two decades - Pena Nieto said that drug use should be addressed as a 
"public health problem" and that users should not be criminalized.

Pena Nieto, who has traditionally been a vocal opponent of drug 
legalization, also called for a global shift in dealing with drug 
consumption while continuing to fight organized crime.

"We should be flexible to change that which has not yielded results, 
the paradigm based essentially in prohibitionism, the so-called 'War 
on Drugs' . . . [which] has not been able to limit production, 
trafficking nor the global consumption of drugs," he said.

Since a landmark Supreme Court decision late last year that paved the 
way for liberalization of Mexico's marijuana laws, support for 
medical marijuana has been growing.

- - Reuters
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom