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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexican president proposes pot decriminalization |
| 2016-04-23 |
| [THEHILL] Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday proposed allowing marijuana users to possess larger amounts of the drug, and releasing those convicted of low-level drug offenses. "If you can't lick 'em, light up!" Peña sent the bill to the Mexican senate, where the body's president, Roberto Gil Zuarth, praised the move toward liberalization of drug policy but criticized the measure. "To move the threshold from 5 to 28 grams isn't enough if one has to go to the black market now to get the 28 grams," said Gil, of the opposition center-right National Action Party. Peña, known for his personal opposition to full legalization of drugs, said his measure is a step "toward a new paradigm that views drugs from a perspective of prevention, health and human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... ." Sen. Agustín Basave Benítez of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution similarly called it a step in the right direction, but added that the measure did not go far enough. Basave said he supported a legal approach of hurting organized crime syndicates financially, instead of taking down drug kingpins who could easily be replaced. "Let’s hit them where it hurts, and we’ll let informed adults decide and addicts to be treated because it’s a health problem," Basave said. Gil, who last month introduced a much more aggressive drug proposal, worried about what would happen if U.S. border states legalized local marijuana production. |
| Posted by:Fred |