MEXICO EXPECTED TO ENACT LIBERALIZED DRUG LAW

The Mexican legislature has voted quietly to decriminalize possession
of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and
other drugs. Past efforts have proved highly controversial, most
recently three years ago, but President Felipe Calderon is expected to
sign the bill into law this time.

MEXICO CITY -- Will Mexican cities become Latin Amsterdams, flooded by
drug users seeking penalty-free tokes and toots?

That is the fear, if somewhat overstated, of some Mexican officials,
especially in northern border states that serve as a mecca for
underage U.S. drinkers.

The Mexican legislature has voted quietly to decriminalize possession
of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and
other drugs. Past efforts have proved highly controversial, most
recently three years ago, but President Felipe Calderon is expected to
sign the bill into law this time.

There has been less protest this time around, in part because there
hasn't been much publicity.

Some critics have suggested easing the punishment on drug possession
sends the wrong message at a time when Calderon is waging a bloody war
on major narcotics traffickers. But Calderon proposed the
decriminalization legislation.

His reasoning: It makes sense to distinguish between small-time users
and big-time dealers, while re-targeting major crime-fighting
resources away from the former and toward the latter and their
drug-lord bosses.

"The important thing is ... that consumers are not treated as
criminals," said Rafael Ruiz Mena, secretary general of the National
Institute of Penal Sciences. "It is a public-health problem, not a
penal problem."

The legislation was approved at the height of a swine-flu outbreak in
Mexico that dominated the public's -- and the world's -- attention.
Meeting at times behind closed doors -- the better to prevent the
spread of disease, officials said -- the lower and upper houses of
Congress passed the bill in late April. It awaits Calderon's signature.

Three years ago, in May 2006, then-President Vicente Fox, from
Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN), vetoed a similar
bill that he initially had supported. Fox backed down only under
pressure from Washington, D.C., where the Bush administration
complained that decriminalization for even small amounts could
increase drug use.

But with less than a month to go before critical midterm elections in
which his party is struggling to maintain control of the legislature,
Calderon cannot afford to be seen as bowing to the United States,
analysts say.

The Obama administration also has not publicly objected to the
legislation, even though Michele Leonhart, acting director of the Drug
Enforcement Administration said in April that legalization of drugs
"would be a failed law-enforcement strategy for both the U.S. and Mexico."

So Calderon is expected to sign the bill into law, political observers
say. Calderon's office did not comment.

Mexican government officials stress they are talking about
decriminalization, not legalization. Until now, courts decided on a
case-by-case basis whether and how to punish first-time drug-use
offenders. And standard criteria for quantities hadn't existed.

Mexico is woefully underequipped to handle a booming drug-abuse
problem.

The country for decades was a transit point for cocaine, marijuana and
other drugs headed to the United States. But domestic consumption has
soared more recently. A 2007 government study found the number of
"addicts" in Mexico doubled in the previous five years.

Drug abuse has worsened, in part, because some of the big cartels pay
their people with cocaine, marijuana or other such substances.

Clinics and other institutions that specialize in treatment and
prevention have not kept up with the trend. The government is building
310 centers to improve care, but experts say that is not enough.

The legislation has received criticism from religious leaders and
several officials of northern border states, who fear that so-called
"drug tourists" will begin flocking to towns and cities already
besieged by violence.

Mary Ellen Hernandez, director of the Rio Grande Safe Communities
Coalition in El Paso, Texas, across the border from the blood-soaked
Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, said she worried decriminalization
would lure Americans into a drug world they aren't prepared for and
increase violence on both sides of the border.

"Already, the drugs that don't come over into the U.S. are being
handed out by dealers to younger and younger children [in Mexico], 8-,
9-, 10-year-olds, hooking them," said Hernandez, whose agency
specializes in drug prevention. "And then [the youths] steal to feed
the habit."

Except for a relatively few voices, however, there has been minimal
protest over the bill, and some praise.

Luciano Pascoe, vice president of the small left-wing Social
Democratic Party (PSD), said the legislation was a positive "first
step" that helped "shatter the stigma that consumers are criminals."

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ABOUT THE BILL

Users caught with small amounts of drugs clearly intended for
"personal and immediate use" would not be criminally prosecuted.
Instead, they would be told of available clinics and encouraged to
enter a rehabilitation program. Among the most common substances,
permitted amounts would be five grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of
cocaine, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine and 50 milligrams of heroin.