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Mexico: Drug-decriminalization veto protested in Mexico
Mark Stevenson AZcentral.com
Sunday 07 May 2006 MEXICO CITY - The issue of drug decriminalization split Mexican politics in strange ways Saturday, after President Vicente Fox refused to sign a bill that would have eliminated criminal penalties for small amounts of drugs. About 500 protesters held a marijuana smoke-in in Mexico City, and a presidential candidate who visited the demonstration came out in favor of decriminalization. Mexico City's police chief came out against it, and some members of Congress accused Fox of yielding to U.S. pressure to veto the bill. "Decriminalization does not create more users . . . we have to decriminalize the discussion of decriminalization," candidate Patricia Mercado of the small Alternative Social-Democratic Party said during a visit to the smoke-in and protest at a park in downtown Mexico City. Mercado declined an invitation to "Light up! Light up!" but said she supported decriminalizing marijuana. A half-dozen Mexico City police officers confronted the protesters, but the crowd thronged around them shouting, "Take us all, take us all!" and the police retreated. Possession of marijuana is a crime, punishable by 10 to 16 months in prison, unless a suspect can claim he is an addict or it is a first offense involving a small amount. But few are prosecuted under the law. Protest organizers described comments by U.S. officials asking Mexico to reconsider the bill as "an open violation of Mexico's sovereignty." "The president has declared war on (drug) consumers," said Alfonso Garcia, secretary of the Mexican Association for Cannabis Studies, who described the bill Fox sent back to Congress on Wednesday as "a minor advance." But the police chief of Mexico's capital - like Mercado, a leftist - said Saturday that he supported Fox's decision not to sign the bill. Joel Ortega said it would have made it harder for his officers to fight drug gangs. "Imagine . . . that we are doing a raid, we almost have to say, 'Let's see, gentlemen drug traffickers, allow me to weigh the drugs to see if we have the power to arrest you,' " Ortega said at a news conference. Conversely, many legislators, including members of Fox's conservative National Action Party, supported the bill. They continued to defend it last week and accused Fox of bowing to U.S. pressure. "Unfortunately . . . the president, under pressure from the United States, sent it back to Congress, saying it would 'regularize' drugs, which is not true," said Rep. Marcela Gonzalez Salas of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. The measure would have dropped criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0507mexico-drugs0507.html
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