Mexico’s Prez is Taking Lessons From Bush

President Vincente Fox is using the Bush administration tactic of saying one thing while his actions prove the opposite. Fox has decided not to sign a bill that would have effectively legalized drugs in Mexico. Now he says the law should be changed "to make it absolutely clear that in our country the possession of drugs and their consumption are and continue to be crimes." Not really. The current law has a provision that grants judges the power to allow people arrested for possession of drugs to argue they are addicts and that the drugs were for personal use. The new law would have amended the legal loophole for addicts to include all adults. It would have made it legal for any adult over 18 to possess and use a specified amount of opiates, marijuana, LSD, Ecstasy and the hallucinogenic cactus peyote. And yes, state officials could have made drug arrests, which now is only the province of the federales. But it’s hard to see how allowing drug addicts and anyone over 18 to possess drugs legally is taking a hard line on drugs. The Fox justification for the bill he nearly signed is that it would have closed the loophole judges were using that permitted traffickers in large amounts of drugs to get away with the crime. It will be interesting to see what “corrections” will be made in the bill that will make it look as though it’s tough on drug lords. Because it’s as imperative for Mexico to keep its drug traffic healthy as it is for Afghanistan to continue growing poppies. Any rhetoric to the contrary is nonsense.