Mexican Congress Hosts Three-Day "Forums on the Regulation of Cannabis"

In mid-April of 2009, as the Drug War Chronicle reports, "the Mexican Congress held a three-day debate on the merits of decriminalizing the personal use of marijuana." Participants included "government officials, elected representatives, academics and experts," who engaged "in a lively discussion of Mexican marijuana policy." The debate resulted at least partially, according to the Chronicle, from "the blood-stained fall-out from President Calderon's war against the cartels[, which] is creating social and political space for reform discussion that would have been impossible a decade ago." Unfortunately, however, due to upcoming midterm elections, the Chronicle doubts that substantive policy changes will come out of the otherwise productive meeting.

For its part, the Obama adminstration "has not weighed in on marijuana legalization or decriminalization in Mexico." The DEA, however, stated that "Either course would mark a 'failure' of US and Mexican Drug Policy," creating more addicts and having little to no impact on the cartels, which officials who spoke to the Chronicle claim "would simply shift their attention to other illegal activities."

To read more about the forum and its participants' ideas, predictions, and feelings, check out the above linked Drug War Chronicle feature. Additionally, readers who are fluent in Spanish can check out Partido Socialdemocrata's ideas about drug legalization here.