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 legalization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marijuana legalization. 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.
Sep 30, 2013
OAS proposes decriminalizing marijuana use in the region
September 28, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation
The secretary general of the Organization of American States
(OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said yesterday in the Senate that the strategy to
combat drug trafficking in the region has been wrong because it has focused solely
on the repression of the supply of narcotics and not on attacking the economic
power of the drug cartels, which has become increasingly violent.
He called for decriminalization of marijuana, and warned
that focusing efforts only on the sale of drugs, without taking institutional
actions aimed at tackling the financial structures and money laundering will lead
to “a war without end”.
In the forum “From Prohibition to Regulation: New Approaches
to Drug Policy” Insulza said that according to a report by experts from the OAS,
the drug trade generates 154 billion dollars a year, of which 77 billion is
laundered in the global financial system.
Also in the Senate but in another forum, Undersecretary of
Prevention and Citizen Participation of the Ministry of the Interior, Roberto
Campa said that despite the intense debate in the U.S. on the decriminalization
of drugs like marijuana, the violence that the drug trade generates will not change
radically in the region in the coming years.
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.
Jan 6, 2013
Mexico considers marijuana legalization after ballot wins in U.S.
Mexico, which has fought a long war against drug cartels that supply U.S. users, is rethinking its marijuana policy after Colorado and Washington approved legalization.
Los Angeles Times: By Richard Fausset, January 4, 2013.
MEXICO CITY
Forgive the Mexicans for trying to get this straight:
So now the United States, which has spent decades battling Mexican marijuana, is on a legalization bender?
The same United States that long viewed cannabis as a menace, funding crop-poisoning programs, tearing up auto bodies at the border, and deploying sniffer dogs, fiber-optic scopes and backscatter X-ray machines to detect the lowly weed?
The success of legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington in November has sparked a new conversation in a nation that is one of the world's top marijuana growers: Should Mexico, which has suffered mightily in its war against the deadly drug cartels, follow the Western states' lead?
Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, opposes legalization, but he also told CNN recently that the news from Washington and Colorado "could bring us to rethinking the strategy." Read more.
Los Angeles Times: By Richard Fausset, January 4, 2013.
MEXICO CITY
Forgive the Mexicans for trying to get this straight:
So now the United States, which has spent decades battling Mexican marijuana, is on a legalization bender?
The same United States that long viewed cannabis as a menace, funding crop-poisoning programs, tearing up auto bodies at the border, and deploying sniffer dogs, fiber-optic scopes and backscatter X-ray machines to detect the lowly weed?
The success of legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington in November has sparked a new conversation in a nation that is one of the world's top marijuana growers: Should Mexico, which has suffered mightily in its war against the deadly drug cartels, follow the Western states' lead?
Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, opposes legalization, but he also told CNN recently that the news from Washington and Colorado "could bring us to rethinking the strategy." Read more.
Nov 20, 2012
US marijuana legalisation fuels Mexico drugs war debate
BBC November 20, 2012
Earlier this month, two US states voted to legalise, regulate and tax marijuana. The BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City looks at what this shift in stance could mean for Mexico and its fight against the drug gangs.
Every year, pro-marijuana campaigners in Seattle hold their annual Hempfest, a two-day festival along the city's shoreline.
Thick pungent clouds of pot smoke waft over the crowd who are sitting out with a joint in their hand, listening to the live music, or pottering among the dozens of stalls selling bongs, pipes and other smoking paraphernalia.
The police are on hand to ensure there is no open buying or selling of the drug. But at the next 'Hempfest', they may not even need to do that.
On the day voters in Washington state chose to re-elect President Barack Obama, they also chose to legalise the recreational use of marijuana. Over the Rockies in Colorado, it was a similar story. Read more.
Earlier this month, two US states voted to legalise, regulate and tax marijuana. The BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City looks at what this shift in stance could mean for Mexico and its fight against the drug gangs.
Every year, pro-marijuana campaigners in Seattle hold their annual Hempfest, a two-day festival along the city's shoreline.
Thick pungent clouds of pot smoke waft over the crowd who are sitting out with a joint in their hand, listening to the live music, or pottering among the dozens of stalls selling bongs, pipes and other smoking paraphernalia.
The police are on hand to ensure there is no open buying or selling of the drug. But at the next 'Hempfest', they may not even need to do that.
On the day voters in Washington state chose to re-elect President Barack Obama, they also chose to legalise the recreational use of marijuana. Over the Rockies in Colorado, it was a similar story. 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.
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