Will Mexico lead U.S. into drug decriminalization?

Talk about taking advantage of a potential plague.

Federal government officials in Mexico are considering a measure that would decriminalize drug possession in small amounts across the country – a step the United States has been reluctant to take.

THE MEASURE THAT would make possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, mathamphetamine and heroin an offense worthy of nothing more than a small fine and no lasting criminal record already has been approved by the national legislature.

It now merely needs the signature of President Felipe Calderòn Hinojosa to become federal law.

The political science type in me finds this whole affair intriguing by the way in which the Legislature managed to approve this. They took advantage of the scare caused by the spread of H1N1 virus that caused many hundreds of fatalities (and thousands of infections) across Mexico.

With the world devoting its share of attention to Mexico to that particular issue, few were paying attention to anything the Mexican government did on any other issue.

AND IF THAT wasn’t enough, some of the sessions in which this particular measure was debated were held in private. The Los Angeles Times reports that government officials used the health scare to justify keeping the public out of the sessions – on the grounds they were reducing the chance of spreading the H1N1 virus.

Somehow, I think there are government officials across the United States who are reading that excuse, and feeling a bit jealous. I’m not saying they’d wish for a potential plague to help them keep their municipal activity secret – but they probably view it as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

Now the critics are coming out to complain.

They’re fearing that people are going to start flooding into Mexico so they can get high on substances that, in certain parts of the United States, could get them significant prison terms if caught.

THEY FEAR THE chances are particularly good in the northernmost states of Mexico (the ones that border the United States). Could we soon get the sight of All-American teenagers (who already venture into border towns to try to get intoxicated legally) going to places like Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez in hopes of getting high as well?

I suppose anything is possible. But I am skeptical that many will make the trip unless they literally are living in a place like El Paso, Texas – in which case they likely already have significant reasons and occasions to venture into Mexico.

If anything, I’d be curious to see how national decriminalization would work out.

For that is a situation we don’t have in the United States, and which I don’t expect we ever will.

THE CURRENT STATUS of drug laws in this country is a virtual checkerboard. Different areas have different standards.

Some places have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana (one community not far from where I live uses 10 grams as the standard to determine whether one faces a local civil charge, or a criminal case).

Others want to view “decriminalization” as being the equivalent of legalization of drugs – something that will only be done over the dead bodies of the local political officials. They want the image of being tough on crime and on drugs, similar to how they want to have a capital crimes statute on the books despite evidence that the death penalty does little to avert violent crime.

If anything, it was always more likely to be Mexico than the United States that would consider a nationwide effort to decriminalize drugs simply because the Mexican experience places much more influence in the federal government than it does the individual states.

THAT IS THE exact opposite of the U.S. structure, where federal prosecutors have certain specific crimes they handle – and all else is left to the locals to decide how they want to handle it.

So there’s the chance that we could learn something from Mexico if they enact a decriminalization measure. It could be either positive or negative. In theory, we could learn from their “mistake.”

But I know the places in the United States that do treat possession of small amounts of certain substances as a minor offense not quite criminal do so because they don’t want to clog up the court systems in their communities with so many cases.

They’d rather devote the resources of their local state’s attorneys and judges to handling prosecution of severe crimes, rather than going after some goofball who wants to get high after watching too many “Cheech and Chong” movies on cable TV.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: It will be interesting to see if Felipe Calderòn signs into federal law a measure decriminalizing possession of small amounts of certain drugs (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009366964_mexdrug22.html) all across Mexico.