Turning to Mexico’s increasing narcotics consumption, President Felipe Calderon has proposed stiffer penalties for small-time drug dealers while suspending punishment for addicts who agree to enter rehabilitation.
“Drugs are the slavery of this century,” Calderon said in a speech Friday. “Criminals seek to make slaves of children and youths. They seek to place drugs, sometimes free of charge, in schools, in neighborhoods, to create addictions, to generate dependency.”
Calderon’s initiative, part of a package of proposals aimed at bolstering his offensive against the country’s powerful drug traffickers, also includes procedures for cleaning up Mexico’s police forces and getting them to better coordinate enforcement efforts.
The anti-addiction proposal resurrects the intent of his predecessor, Vicente Fox, in pushing those apprehended with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs to seek treatment.
“We want to distinguish clearly in the law between criminals who poison our young and those who are only victims and suffer an illness, an addiction,” Calderon said Friday.
Fox vetoed a similar plan in May 2006 after a congressional version of the initiative changed “addicts” into “consumers,” sparking concerns in Mexico and Washington that the government intended to legalize drugs.
An exploding market
Drug consumption in Mexico has exploded since the 1990s when the country’s traffickers began to acquire more South American cocaine than they could smuggle into the U.S. due to increased American enforcement efforts.
A recent government study reports that the number of Mexican drug addicts has nearly doubled to 307,000 since 2002. Another 4.5 million Mexicans have used drugs at least once, according to the study.
Private addiction treatment specialist say those estimates are far too low.
“The government minimizes the problem. It’s growing exponentially,” said Regina Kuri, a spokeswoman for Clinica Claider, a treatment facility in Mexico City’s upscale San Angel neighborhood. “Lower class, middle class, higher class: it’s everyone. The drugs are staying here in Mexico.”
Calderon’s proposal caps the quantities not subject to prosecution to less than 2 grams of marijuana, half a gram of cocaine and 40 milligrams of methamphetamine believed for personal use.
The initiative stiffens street dealers’ sentences for possession with intent to distribute to up to eight years, plus fines. The penalty is increased if the dealer is arrested in or near schools, sports facilities or public parks.
Families involved
Users arrested for a third time, or in or near schools, parks and sports facilities will not be allowed to undergo treatment in lieu of prosecution.
As drug use has grown, so has the business feeding it. In the past year, police have arrested nearly 10,000 accused small-time drug peddlers and seized 31 tons of marijuana and nearly a ton of cocaine, according to a report sent to the Mexican Congress.
Police in violence-plagued cities complain that entire families have become involved in selling drugs from front porches and neighborhood stores.
“People see a way to make easy money,” Luis Carlos Vasquez, 39, a police commander in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, said. “There is no one teaching the children differently, so they become gang members.”
Calderon launched a crackdown on Mexico’s powerful narcotics smuggling gangs upon taking office in December 2006.
It seems once again, Mexico is confronting the problem logically, while the US continues on with it’s failed National Drug Policy.
Related posts:
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.