InSightCrime: Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto has said he is willing to discuss legalizing marijuana, becoming the latest regional leader to question the drug prohibition paradigm and begin to confront the failures of interdiction-based policies.
In an interview with El Pais, Peña Nieto called anti-drug measures employed over the last 30 to 40 years "failed" policies, stating that they had led to increases in both consumption and production. He argued that with the recreational use of marijuana now legal in two US states -- Colorado and Washington -- it did not make sense for Mexico to have policies that differed from those of the "most important consumer market" for Mexican drugs. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Showing posts with label marijuana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marijuana. Show all posts
Oct 15, 2013
North America’s Largest City Moves to Legalize Pot
TIME
By Ioan Grillo
Oct. 14, 2013
Though deprived of sunlight and breathing the smog-ridden air of Mexico’s mountain capital, the marijuana plants, from a strain known as purple kush, reach 0.9 m in a brick home at a middle-class suburb. They are alimented with electric lights and kept behind closed curtains by the owner, who says he grows them to smoke himself. If police found them, he could be nailed for drug production and face a hefty prison sentence under laws designed to tackle the country’s ultraviolent cartels. Read more.
By Ioan Grillo
Oct. 14, 2013
Though deprived of sunlight and breathing the smog-ridden air of Mexico’s mountain capital, the marijuana plants, from a strain known as purple kush, reach 0.9 m in a brick home at a middle-class suburb. They are alimented with electric lights and kept behind closed curtains by the owner, who says he grows them to smoke himself. If police found them, he could be nailed for drug production and face a hefty prison sentence under laws designed to tackle the country’s ultraviolent cartels. Read more.
Jul 9, 2013
Former Mexican President Fox Urges Marijuana Legalization
NY Times
By Reauters
July 8, 2013
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox took his crusade to legalize marijuana to San Francisco on Monday, joining pot advocates to urge the United States and his own country to decriminalize 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 marijuana dispensary, and former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively, who hopes to create a Seattle-based pot brand now that Washington state has legalized recreational use. Read more.
By Reauters
July 8, 2013
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox took his crusade to legalize marijuana to San Francisco on Monday, joining pot advocates to urge the United States and his own country to decriminalize 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 marijuana dispensary, and former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively, who hopes to create a Seattle-based pot brand now that Washington state has legalized recreational use. Read more.
Nov 13, 2012
Colorado, Washington Marijuana Legalization: Latin American Leaders Ask For A Review Of Drug Policies
Huffington Post By E. Eduardo Castillo and Michael Weissentein
MEXICO CITY — A group of Latin American leaders declared Monday that votes by two U.S. states to legalize marijuana have important implications for efforts to quash drug smuggling, offering the first government reaction from a region increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-backed war on drugs.
The declaration by the leaders of Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica did not explicitly say they were considering weakening their governments' efforts against marijuana smuggling, but it strongly implied the votes last week in Colorado and Washington would make enforcement of marijuana bans more difficult. Read more.
MEXICO CITY — A group of Latin American leaders declared Monday that votes by two U.S. states to legalize marijuana have important implications for efforts to quash drug smuggling, offering the first government reaction from a region increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-backed war on drugs.
The declaration by the leaders of Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica did not explicitly say they were considering weakening their governments' efforts against marijuana smuggling, but it strongly implied the votes last week in Colorado and Washington would make enforcement of marijuana bans more difficult. Read more.
Jul 18, 2012
Blunt Trauma: Marijuana, the new blood diamonds
The New Republic: Greg Campbell. In the summer of 2010, I harvested a small crop of marijuana I’d grown in my basement and sold it to a twentysomething college student who replied to an advertisement I’d posted on Craigslist. The transaction was conducted under the auspices of Colorado’s medical marijuana law, and so a certain degree of farce was involved. I wasn’t sick, yet I qualified as a stateapproved pot patient, which allowed me to grow and sell marijuana to other similarly qualified “patients.” Say what you will about the merits of such a system, but at least no one died as a result.
Marijuana may be one of the safest intoxicants known to man—in thousands of years of unregulated use, there has not been a single known fatality attributable to overdose. However, the system by which millions of Americans obtain their pot is deadly and growing deadlier. Mexican cartels have long supplied heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine to the United States, but marijuana is the most widely used drug in the United States, and the cartels are in a murderous frenzy to provide it. Since 2006, approximately 50,000 people have been killed in a gruesome war to control lucrative smuggling lanes into the United States. Read more.
Marijuana may be one of the safest intoxicants known to man—in thousands of years of unregulated use, there has not been a single known fatality attributable to overdose. However, the system by which millions of Americans obtain their pot is deadly and growing deadlier. Mexican cartels have long supplied heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine to the United States, but marijuana is the most widely used drug in the United States, and the cartels are in a murderous frenzy to provide it. Since 2006, approximately 50,000 people have been killed in a gruesome war to control lucrative smuggling lanes into the United States. Read more.
Mar 12, 2012
Drug Policy Debate: Baker Institute Hosts "War on Drugs" Conference, Asks "Is Legalization the Answer?"
The Huffington Post: By Russ Belville. "I've just returned from Houston, Texas, where I participated in a two-day forum held by the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. This informative discussion included representatives from law enforcement, judiciary, clergy, academia, drug law reform, anti-drug advocacy, medicine and government, from Texas, from America, from Europe, and from Mexico (where 50,000 have been slaughtered in our Drug War.)
My job was to debate the topic of "Marijuana" with a former adviser to Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, Dr. Kevin Sabet. He's worked in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations on the issue of drug policy." read more
My job was to debate the topic of "Marijuana" with a former adviser to Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, Dr. Kevin Sabet. He's worked in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations on the issue of drug policy." read more
Mar 2, 2012
Drug War: New “Narcotunnel” Discovered on U.S.-Mexico Border
Latin American Herald Tribune: A new tunnel used to smuggle drugs into the United States from Mexico was found in this Arizona border city, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday.
U.S. agents and Mexican Federal Police officers simultaneously entered the tunnel, which connected Nogales, Arizona, to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, from their respective sides of the border.
Mexican police seized 550 pounds of marijuana discovered inside the tunnel, ICE said in a statement. read more
U.S. agents and Mexican Federal Police officers simultaneously entered the tunnel, which connected Nogales, Arizona, to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, from their respective sides of the border.
Mexican police seized 550 pounds of marijuana discovered inside the tunnel, ICE said in a statement. read more
Feb 29, 2012
U.S. Corruption and Drug War: Gandara Moved to Federal Courthouse to Arrange for Release
KVIA El Paso: "El Paso Sheriffs deputies tell ABC-7 that Guillermo "Willie" Gandara Jr. was moved from the El Paso County Jail to the U.S. Federal Courthouse this morning where he is making arrangements to bond out of jail.
A federal judge on Monday set Gandara's bond at $50,000 cash bond. Gandara has been charged with federal drug trafficking charges and has been in jail since Thursday morning.
During Monday's hearing, prosecutors played video surveillance evidence they said shows Gandara and Juan Canales engaged in illegal activity. Canales was released early Wednesday morning on a $20,000 cash bond.
Gandara is expected to officially resign his seat on Commissioners Court on Wednesday, according to County Judge Veronica Escobar." read more
A federal judge on Monday set Gandara's bond at $50,000 cash bond. Gandara has been charged with federal drug trafficking charges and has been in jail since Thursday morning.
During Monday's hearing, prosecutors played video surveillance evidence they said shows Gandara and Juan Canales engaged in illegal activity. Canales was released early Wednesday morning on a $20,000 cash bond.
Gandara is expected to officially resign his seat on Commissioners Court on Wednesday, according to County Judge Veronica Escobar." read more
Jan 4, 2011
Whack-a-mole Drug War: Border agents make $2.4 million marijuana bust
And we have the first pot bust of the new year (well, actually, it was made New Year's Eve).
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