Prominent Mexicans Urge Government to Decriminalize Marijuana Dave Graham - Reuters
go to original September 25, 2013

MEXICO CITY - A broad spectrum of prominent Mexicans, including former ministers, businessmen, artists and a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, on Wednesday urged the government to decriminalize marijuana in a bid to curb gang violence and corruption.

Since 2007, about 80,000 people have been killed in turf wars between drug cartels and their clashes with security forces, leading to calls for a change in policy in Mexico and elsewhere in the U.S.-led war on drugs.

Wednesday's newspaper advertisement urging the decriminalization of cannabis brought together one of the most diverse coalitions pushing for change in Mexico. Those lobbying included a number of influential figures in public life.

... The ad argued that criminalization made narcotics more lucrative for cartels, noted that a number of U.S. states had liberalized marijuana laws and that Uruguay's Congress was taking steps to legalize the cultivation and sale of the drug.

"Mexico has paid a high cost for applying the punitive policy of prohibition," the advertisement read.

Read the rest at Reuters

Signers:
Agustín Acosta
Héctor Aguilar Camín
Rubén Aguilar
Sarah Aguilar
Gonzalo Aguilar Zinser
Fabián Aguinaco
Gaz Alazraki
Guillermo Arriaga
Pedro Aspe
Roger Bartra
Sabina Berman
Diana Bracho
Julia Carabias
María Amparo Casar
Jorge G. Castañeda
Rafael Cauduro
Luisa Conesa
Santiago Corcuera
Luis de la Barreda
Luis de la Calle
Juan Ramón de la Fuente
Antonio del Valle Perochena
Juan Pablo del Valle Perochena
Julio Frenk
Gael García Bernal
Roberta Garza Medina
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Fernando Gómez Mont
Claudio X. González Guajardo
Eduardo Guerrero
David Ibarra Muñoz
Jorge Islas
Arnoldo Kraus
Marta Lamas
Silvia Lemus Fuentes
Claudio Lomnitz
Diego Luna
Alejandro Madrazo
Julio Madrazo
Ana Laura Magaloni
Ángeles Mastretta
Mario Molina
María Elena Morera
Enrique Norten
Gabriel Orozco
Miguel Ángel Orozco
Adalberto Palma
Juan Pardinas
Alejandro Ramírez
Jesús Reyes Heroles
Carlos Reygadas
Josefina Ricaño de Nava
Manuel Rodríguez Woog
María Rojo
Pablo Rudomin
Ricardo Salinas Pliego
Lisa Sánchez
Armando Santacruz
Mari Carmen Serra Puche
Javier Sicilia
Cecilia Soto
Francisco Toledo
Juan Francisco Torres Landa
Juan Villoro
José Woldenberg
Susana Zabaleta
Juan Ignacio Zavala

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