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Mexico Drug Legalization May Boost US Drug Tourism
Tim Gaynor | Reuters | 05/02/06

REYNOSA, Mexico (Reuters) - Hard-partying U.S. teens and college students have long crossed the Rio Grande to knock back cheap beers and tequila shots in Mexico away from the watchful gaze of parents, teachers and police.

Now, a move to legalize drug possession in Mexico is set to put wings on their traditional revels and create the type of weekend drug tourism more commonly seen in Europe. That worries local authorities already swamped by drug crime.

"When I heard the news I said, 'Mexico is going to be the new Amsterdam,'" said Texan student Matthew Flores, 23, in reference to the Dutch city where liberal narcotics laws attract drug tourists from across Europe.

"People will now be able to go over the border, maybe smoke a doobie (marijuana cigarette) and hang out, and it won't be a big deal," said the 23-year-old journalism student from McAllen, Texas.

The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by President Vicente Fox in the coming weeks, allows for the possession of up to 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of marijuana, 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of opium, 25 milligrams (0.0009 ounces) of heroin and 500 milligrams (0.018 ounces) of cocaine.

It also decriminalizes the possession of limited quantities of other drugs including LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote -- a psychotropic cactus found in the Mexican deserts.

But the controversial decision has angered U.S. politicians and judges, who called it a setback in the war on drugs, while beleaguered Mexican police warn it will make crime-racked border cities rowdier and more unruly.

"As it is, there are fights and public order problems caused by young people who come here to party," policewoman Ana Lilia Ortega said in Reynosa, a sweltering Mexican border city with gaudy bars and strip clubs south of McAllen.

"They come to have a few drinks and some tequilas, and now with drugs on top we're not going to be able to control it."

PARENTS WORRIED

The government says decriminalizing small amounts of drugs will free up resources for the fight against violent drug gangs engaged in a turf war on the border.

But the law, which also raises penalties for the possession of larger quantities of drugs, and toughens sentencing for trafficking near schools, has angered local authorities and parents on both sides of the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border.

Authorities in Mexico's Baja California state estimate that as many as one in eight people there already abuse narcotics. They say 98 percent of crimes committed in the gritty border city of Tijuana are carried out by drug users, and are looking at possible ways to get around the new law.

"We don't need laws that allow drug use, as minimal as that may be ... but programs for the psychological and medical treatment of addicts" said state governor Eugenio Elorduy.

Tijuana is a magnet for teenage U.S. drinkers taking advantage of Mexico's liberal licensing laws.

In El Paso, Texas, a non-profit group that seeks to crack down on bingeing by local youngsters who cross the border to Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico, says loosening drug laws would deepen the already existing problem.

"It's already a concern that teenagers and college-age kids go to Juarez to drink, and I'm worried they are going to be encouraged to try harder drugs because it won't be against the law," said Marge Bartoletti, the director of the Rio Grande Safe Communities Coalition.

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island

I commend the Mexican goverment for taking this radical step.

nerphroll

I agree that mexico might become an amsterdam of sorts, and could adversely affect the legalization battle in the Us (see this recent post The Real Cancun). Mexico is clearly doing this to serve its own best interests, which is fine. They shouldn't have to worry about what the big ole US has to say about it. Their country, their rules. It's just that with Mexico so much closer to home than Amsterdam, this could get ugly unless visiting Americans conduct themselves responsibly, easier said than done.

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