U.S. cautious on Mexico plan to legalize drugs

MSNBC.com ^ | April 29, 2006 | Staff

[CrawDaddyCA]

MEXICO CITY - The United States reacted cautiously on Saturday to a Mexican measure that would make it legal to carry small amounts of cocaine, heroin and other drugs for personal use.

News of the decriminalization did not make the front pages of any major Mexico City newspaper, nor was it discussed in editorials. It was slightly better publicized in the north of the country, where turf wars between rival drugs gangs have caused hundreds of killings along the Mexico-U.S. border, but was still overshadowed by news about immigration.

[ncountylee]

Careful...we don't want to upset Senor Fox, the filthy pig.

[R.W.Ratikal]

A few questions re legalizing drugs.

Will the Food and Drug Administration still have to pass on drugs for efficacy and safety?

What about side-effects? Will the government allow drug sellers to peddle drugs with the well-known side effects we see in drug heads?

Why believe that drugs manufactured by our drug companies with their high expense of R&D, sales, distribution and getting approval from the FDA, will be sold cheaper than drugs sold on the street that come out of a meth lab in a cellar, the jungles of Columbia the poppy fields of
Afghanistan, Burma, Turkey, etc?

How will taxes be collected from illegal drug sellers?

Illegal drug sellers will always be cheaper than legalized drugs because they have lower manufacturing costs, no taxes, unions etc to pay.

Forget it!

[Names Ash Housewares]

Mexico has drug laws?

[stumpy]

Hopefully all of our "druggies" (democrats too) will immigrate to mexico. Then we'll have room in our jails and prisons for the mexicans.

[Spirited]

We act cautiously. Fox demands of us and gets it.

[3catsanadog]

Apparently Mexico still intends to be tough legally on drug traffickers. At least that's what they say.

But I'm confused - if it's OK to use cocaine, heroin, marijuana legally, how would one go about getting it if it can't be sold legally?

Really I know that illegal trafficking will still go on but ya gotta wonder when the higher ups decide on all things law, do they realize how utterly stupid they end up appearing?

Case in point is the convuluted bills about immigration reform. Basically it comes down to if it's Tuesday and raining for only half the day, the illegals who came here 5 years and 10 days ago can refer to the law made for Sundays that snow all day long, except for one hour, if that hour is between the hours of 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm. If it snows during those hours, please refer to restrictions for days that the temperature reaches 85 degrees between the months of December and April in the cities next to the Canadian border of South Dakota.

[Know your rights]

Will the Food and Drug Administration still have to pass on drugs for efficacy and safety?

What about side-effects? Will the government allow drug sellers to peddle drugs with the well-known side effects we see in drug heads?

No FDA involvement ... they'll be regulated like the legal drug tobacco.

Why believe that drugs manufactured by our drug companies with their high expense of R&D, sales, distribution and getting approval from the FDA, will be sold cheaper than drugs sold on the street that come out of a meth lab in a cellar, the jungles of Columbia the poppy fields of Afghanistan, Burma, Turkey, etc?

Because the price of the drug alcohol dropped sharply when Prohibition ended. The costs of operating ilegally far outstrip the costs you mention, especially when you factor in the economies of scale enjoyed by legal makers.

How will taxes be collected from illegal drug sellers?

There will be few if any illegal drug sellers, because they can't compete with legal sellers for the reasons mentioned above.

[lumpenBourgeois]

Dang! I wouldn't have posted if I had seen it here...

Anyway, it is interesting to note the lefties opposition to the plan.

[A CA Guy]

Perhaps Libertarians will go down and do the drugs Mexicans refuse to do? :)