Mexican
Official
Denounces
Legalization,
Acting
US
Drug
Czar
Cheers
11/23/01
Drug warriors from both sides of the Rio Grande took the occasion of the fourth Binational Conference on Reducing Drug Demand, in Mexico City last week, to attack decriminalization of drug use and drug markets as a means of reducing drug harm. The head of Mexico's National Council on Addictions, Guido Belsasso, told a crowd including US Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow and acting drug czar Edward Jurith that "actions to achieve reductions in drug demand in Mexico share a basic principle: we oppose decriminalization of drugs. The experiences of other countries to cut drug consumption in half through decriminalization have failed," Belsasso asserted. (DRCNet is aware of no country that has claimed to be able to cut drug consumption in half via decriminalization. The most well-known example of effective decriminalization, the Netherlands, has seen marijuana use among the young decline slightly, and both its youth and overall use levels remain significantly lower than in the US.) "In Mexico, we are convinced that [decriminalization] is not the path," continued Belsasso. "The position of Mexico is very clear in this sense: If we authorize the use of drugs we are sending a contradictory message to Mexican youth. The policy is absolutely clear: We are not interested in doing that and that is the policy of the Mexican government." Jurith, for his part, seconded Belsasso's position, arguing that prevention campaigns could reduce drug use. Jurith pointed to the decline in cocaine use in the US since the 1980s as an example. Jurith also used the visit to Mexico City to laud Mexican President Vicente Fox for his cooperation in the drug war. Although Fox and some high officials in his administration have discussed legalization as an ultimate solution to Mexico's drug problem -- which is seen in terms of the corrosive effects of black market drug trafficking organizations on security, public safety, and the health of the state -- Fox has resolutely followed a conventional drug war strategy. "President Fox has made a real commitment that I think is different from the past," he told Reuters. That same day, Interior Minister Santiago Creel Miranda told a press conference in Mexico City that the Fox 2002 budget would emphasize the war on drugs and public insecurity, "but with the limited resources we have, given the decline in tax revenues." Creel Miranda pointed to the assassination of two federal judges in Mazatlan last week as an example of what the government faced, El Diario de Mexico reported.
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