MEXICO'S PRESIDENT BACKS DRUG LEGALIZATION

Mexico's President Backs Drug Legalization It's The Only Way To Win
War On Drugs, Leader Suggests

OTTAWA -- Mexico's president has dropped a bombshell before next
month's Summit of the Americas by telling Mexican newspapers that
legalizing drugs is the only way to win the expensive and bloody war
against narcotics trafficking.

Crossing a line Latin American leaders traditionally do not tread,
President Vicente Fox speculated in weekend interviews with two
Mexican newspapers that the only way to win the war against drugs was
by legalizing them and, thereby, eliminating the profit-motive and
violence that goes with illegal trafficking.

Fox's comments followed statements by his top police officials that
legalization is the only way to win the war on drugs.

"That's right, that's true, that's true," Fox told the newspaper
Unomasuno when asked if he agreed with the assessment of a senior
police official who supports the legalization route.

Sitting Latin American leaders have avoided support of legalization
for fear of economic reprisal by the United States, which has taken a
zero-tolerance position against drug use, trafficking and production.

Fox said Mexico would not and could not act unilaterally and that he
did not expect any international action to be coming soon.

"When the day comes that it is time to adopt the alternative of
lifting punishment for consumption of drugs, it would have to come
all over the world," he was quoted by El Sol de Mexico. "Humanity
some day will see that it is best in that sense."

Legalization is not now on the agenda of the Quebec Summit of the
Americas April 20-22, which is bringing together 34 hemispheric heads
of state and government.

Earlier this month Uruguayan President Jorge Batlle Ibanez pledged to
raise the question at Quebec. In a live Internet discussion with the
Washington Post last week, he said he will attempt to open debate on
legalization of drugs either formally or informally.

"Imagine the money you spend to impede drug traffic and imagine that
huge amount of resources on education for the people who really need
help," he said, adding that Uruguay has not experienced any backlash
from the U.S. for his drug position.

Batlle said the best way to address the civil war in Colombia would
be to legalize drugs and admit Colombia into NAFTA.

Officials at the Mexican embassy in Ottawa said Fox is not advocating
legalization of drugs nor is Mexico going to attempt to bring the
topic to the Quebec summit agenda.

"The president is talking about the possible decriminalization for
possession of some drugs for personal use as some other countries
have done, but that would require international agreement," Alfonso
Nieto said Tuesday.

"But for the time being, we have declared war against drug
trafficking. A total battle against drugs."

Nieto also said while there has been some public debate in Mexico
about drug decriminalization, it has not yet been discussed by the
National Congress and it is not part of the country's summit agenda.

"There are other issues, like democracy-building, like security, like
free trade that have a much higher level on the agenda."

Canadian officials say they have had no indication that Mexico has
changed its approach to fighting drug producers and traffickers.

"In all of our meetings with the Fox administration so far, they have
never brought up the subject of legalizing narcotics," said Foreign
Affairs spokesman Francois Lasalle.

Mexico has sent a series of conflicting messages on its approach to
the war on drugs since Fox was elected last fall.

He stunned the United States with the appointment of two
pro-legalization officials to senior positions in his cabinet.

Alejandro Gertz, the former police chief of Mexico City and now
public security minister, has talked in the past about the need to
take economic incentives out of drugs and that Mexico should be
considering the Netherlands' approach to drug use and sales.

Mexico's new foreign minister, Jorge Casteneda, a left-leaning
academic and former guest columnist for Newsweek magazine, has
written in that magazine that legalization might be the only way to
win the war on drugs and made reference to U.S. President George W.
Bush's former cocaine use.

However, any plans the Mexicans might have had to embark on a course
sharply divergent from the Americans' policy of prohibition appeared
to be derailed after Fox and Bush met in January.

The official communique released after the presidents' summit
contained language that was a return to the American position of
zero-tolerance.

"Drug trafficking, drug abuse and organized crime are major threats
to the well-being of our societies. To combat this threat, we must
strengthen our respective law-enforcement strategies and institutions
and develop closer, more trusting avenues of bilateral and
multilateral co-operation.

"We want to reduce the demand for drugs and eliminate
drug-trafficking organizations. To this end, we will undertake
immediate steps to review policies and co-ordination efforts in
accordance with each country's national jurisdiction."

By earlier this month, however, Mexico was again talking about legalization.

"The debate is there, in the Mexican society," deputy foreign
minister Enrique Berruga told reporters prior to the
Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas in Ottawa.