Organizations Ask More from President Pena Nieto's Marijuana Proposal Cesar Aguilar - The News
go to original April 24, 2016

Despite recognizing the president’s proposal on the use of marijuana as positive, specialists lamented that the initiative leaves aside the combat against the cannabis black market, which must undoubtedly be dealt with, an opinion shared by the head of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) in Mexico City, Raúl Flores.

This was one of the main conclusions of the debate on the liberalization of marijuana in the context of the Constitutional Assembly organized by the PRD officials in the capital, whose leader considered that the presidential initiative lacked the fundamental theme of cannabis traffic.

On the part of civil society, Bruno González asserted that drug prohibition has been much more damaging for social health than drugs themselves, an example of this being homicides in Mexico.

The coordinator of the program of Damage Reduction on the issue of drugs, from the Espolea civil organization, stated that prohibition in Mexico has served criminal groups in their domination of the drug market and their ensuing competition with the state for territorial control and the governance of societies. In this sense, he considered that the presidential initiative on marijuana regulation does not cover an essential element of the chain: distribution.

“Peña had not moved in the least on what is central, which is to attack the black market. Prohibition generates incentives for delinquents to control the offer of substances and enrich themselves. Furthermore, they put the rules in that market, and hence make it much more dangerous to consume these substances”, he said.

Specialists in this debate coincided that in the context of the drafting Mexico City’s constitution, the capital should regulate the use of marijuana in a similar manner as the Netherlands, by regulating its consume in safe places.

Read the rest at The News

Related: Rethinking the ‘War on Drugs’: Insights from US and Mexico (Eurasia Review)

Related: The Movement to Legalize Pot Gains Speed in the Americas (The Washington Post)

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