BORDER TRAFFIC

News coming out of Mexico that might still have a significant impact
on relations with that country may have been lost in the reaction and
counter-reaction to the May 1 demonstrations on the issue of
immigration. At the end of April, the Mexican legislature had passed
a bill that would have decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs.

That included heroin (25 milligrams), cocaine 500 milligrams),
marijuana (5 grams) and other drugs such as LSD.

Mexican President Vincente Fox had announced he would sign the bill;
in fact, he had a hand in designing the legislation.

But heavy pressure from the United States convinced Fox to send the
bill back to the legislature for more work.

It should be noted that the intent of the bill was not to reposition
Mexico as a drug haven, but to free up jail space and refocus funding
and manpower from small-time users to big-time smugglers and dealers.

Other parts of the bill would have set stiffer penalties for
trafficking and empowered Mexico's 400,000 local and state police to
pursue and arrest street dealers, which is now the responsibility of
a federal police force with just 21,000 employees.

The Chief of the Federal Police, Eduardo Medina Mora, said it was
true the law would make it a misdemeanor to possess small quantities
of illegal drugs, but he added that people caught with those drugs
would still have to go before a judge and would face a range of
penalties. "Mexico is not, has not been and will not be a refuge for
anyone who wants to consume drugs," he said.

But American officials, particularly those in towns near the southern
border, were not mollified.

San Diego Mayor Mayor Jerry Sanders, a former police chief, called
the bill "appallingly reckless and incredibly dangerous."

Ron Brooks, President of US National Narcotics Officers Association,
a coalition representing over 60,000 state narcotics officers,
presented a scary scenario in an interview with the Associated Press:
"Your kid goes down to party for a few days over spring break and
comes back strung out. We have 24,000 overdose deaths a year in the
US." If the bill passed, he said, there would be more.

Mexico would not have been the first country to decriminalize drugs.

Half a dozen European countries, as well as Colombia, have passed
some form of decriminalization law. Whether that's helped, or hurt,
the fight against major drug trafficking is unclear. Peter Reuter, a
professor of public policy at the University of Maryland's Department
of Criminology said there is no proof leniency affects the number of
users. "Italy and Spain have moderately severe drug problems but
don't stand out with the highest addiction rates or more drug-related
criminality.

Switzerland has a higher rate of addiction and has a much more
conventional policy," he says. "A study has yet to show that
decriminalizing drugs has an effect on drug consumption or trafficking."

But many Mexican officials, the Associated Press reported, have a
different take.

"It does not make any sense to put all the addicts or small-time
users in jail," said Jorge Chabat a Mexican scholar who studies the
illegal drug trade at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching.
"Addicts are not criminals and our jails are overwhelmed -- so we
need to choose who we are going to fight and how."

That opinion -- that current methods are not working and that drastic
action needs to be taken -- is not going to go away. Following
President Fox's decision to veto the bill, Mexican lawmakers pledged
to keep pushing for its passage, saying they could override Mr. Fox's
veto. Should that happen, expect a sharp increase in southbound
border traffic, as consumers seek out the lowest prices in classic
capitalist tradition, and gold flows to Acapulco in search of Acapulco Gold.