Posted on 08/21/2009 2:53:19 AM PDT by SolidWood
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.
The law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution; the law goes into effect on Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Seriously??
It’s now legal to be stupid AND stoned down there?
Legal to own “personal use” sizes of drugs, while offering free detox and care from the gov’t? Add on top of that dealers with their own “personal use” sizes of drugs and “gifting” them to others while those others “gift” the dealers money, guns and sex... seems like an endless cycle and a money pit... especially with the free gov’t kickbacks.
Oh good. Now they can come over the border drugged up.
You are seeing what happens when the the effect of law is worse than the drugs.
More people are being killed by the drug gangs than by the drugs themselves. The illegality of drugs has given criminal gangs various ways to make money, and with that, a reason to strictly enforce their financial stake in illegal drug operations.
Making small amounts of drugs un-illegal (pardon the term, but it fits) stops some low-level corruption by local authorities and changes the stakes for the big dealers. In addition, it throws more weight on personal management and family in dealing with these problems.
Think about the problems Mexico is enduring before casting stones.
For what it’s worth, I believe that California will legalize pot before the end of 2010.
Mexsterdam.
It has already begun, and this is surrender.
“We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against — then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it.
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
“Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
You just say that because you've never seen what happens when there are no drug laws.
When the hippies discovered LSD, they used it like candy, legally. Look at where those hippie liberals took the country.
you very well may be right....why not decriminalize small amounts of these drugs for personal use, and tax their sale.
Nearly every "evil" drug in existence today was legal and often commercialized during one of the greatest periods of economic and social expansion of the United States.
If they banned tobacco, the drug cartels would be raking in billions by cooking and distributing crack nicotine instead. Hasn't the abject failure of alcohol prohibition taught anyone anything?
Hmmm---and where would that be?? The only places I currently know about were the Netherlands and now Mexico.
"When the hippies discovered LSD, they used it like candy, legally. Look at where those hippie liberals took the country."
Oh, baloney. First, hippies were never more than a tiny minority, and secondly, even of those, the LSD druggies were a small minority. Marijuana was the "toke of choice".
Hey, this is great. We trade US stoners for Mexican workers who choose not to be stoned. I wonder if this is enough to reverse the flow of population. Sounds like a win-win to me.
It won’t be too much longer before drugs are legalized AND TAXED here. With bankruptcy of the federal and state governments ahead, this is a likely scenario.
California has to release 40,000 prisoners in the near future. Think of the money to be made by the gov’t and saved by states and municipalities on law enforcement and prison management. The police would actually be able to go after violent criminals. There isn’t enough money in the world to win the drug war.
But if the drugs could be manufactured legally in licensed facilities, addicts could get them at a reasonable price so no more robbery and break ins to finance drug habbits. The purity would no longer be a problem and suddenly criminal enterprise would be out of the drug business.
Tax money generated could pay for treatment for those who would like to get off drugs.
Oh My, Oh My - Now you’ll be able to get marijuana in Mexico, Oh the Horrors!
You are right. Anyone who doesn’t understand this needs to read about Al Capone and other gangs in the prohibition era.
Not that legalizing drugs and paying for treatment plans work, especially in a society that doesn’t really encourage people to live the ‘right way’, but there is no way to keep up with how far over the top the gangs have gotten.
They were losing tourist money from people staying away due to the violence. Now they will get hordes of college students going down to get legally stoned for the weekend.
I don’t think it did. People would rather sit morally on high (no pun intended) and not look at the big picture.
Yeah, passing LSD out like candy on every college campus...it never happened...
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