Vote decriminalizing some drug use raises objections

MEXICO CITY -- Could Mexican cities become Latin Amsterdams, flooded by drug users seeking penalty-free tokes and toots?

That is the fear, if somewhat overstated, of some Mexican officials, especially in northern border states that serve as a mecca for underage American drinkers.

The Mexican legislature has voted quietly to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs, an effort that in the past has proved highly controversial.

There has been less protest this time around, in part because there hasn't been much publicity.

Some critics have suggested easing the punishment on drug possession sends the wrong message at a time when President Felipe Calderon is waging a bloody war on major narcotics traffickers. The battle between law enforcement authorities and drug suspects has claimed more than 11,000 lives in the last 2 1/2 years.

But it was Calderon himself who proposed the decriminalization legislation.

His reasoning: It makes sense to distinguish between small-time users and big-time dealers, while re-targeting major crime-fighting resources away from the former and toward the latter and their drug lord bosses.

"The important thing is ... that consumers are not treated as criminals," said Rafael Ruiz Mena, secretary general of the National Institute of Penal Sciences. "It is a public health problem, not a penal problem."

The legislation was approved at the height of a swine-flu outbreak in Mexico that dominated the public's, and the world's, attention. Meeting at times behind closed doors -- the better to prevent the spread of disease, officials said -- the lower and upper houses of Congress passed the bill on the last days of April. It awaits Calderon's signature.

The bill says users caught with small amounts -- five grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of cocaine -- clearly intended for "personal and immediate use" will not be criminally prosecuted. They will be told of available clinics, and encouraged to enter a rehabilitation program.

As many as 40 milligrams of methamphetamine, a synthetic and especially harmful drug, are permitted, as are as many as 50 milligrams of heroin.

Three years ago, in May of 2006, then-President Vicente Fox, from Calderon's right-wing party, vetoed a similar bill that Congress had approved and that he initially had supported. He backed down only under pressure from Washington, D.C., where the Bush administration complained that decriminalization for even small amounts could increase drug use.