THE WAR ON DRUG REFORM

Indignation in the United States over Mexican legislation that would
have decriminalized possession of small quantities of drugs represents
the height of hypocrisy. It is the enormous homegrown demand for
narcotics within the United States that drives the world's drug trade,
perverts foreign economies and feeds an international criminal
underclass. Before it lectures its neighbours about drug policy,
Washington needs to get its own house in order.

Mexico has a much smaller drug abuse problem than does the United
States, and serious crimes associated with the drug trade in Mexico
are largely concerned with servicing the U.S. market. The law passed
by Mexico's Congress last week but now set to be blocked by Mexican
President Vicente Fox under intense U.S. pressure, was a lucid
response to that problem.

Primarily designed to target drug gangs involved in trafficking, the
law would have made it easier for police to go after dealers because
it specified what amount of drugs would be considered simple
possession, and freed police from having to enforce minor crimes by
decriminalizing small amounts of drugs -- not only marijuana, but also
peyote, the cactus used in some Indian religious rites, as well as
harder substances like cocaine, LSD and heroin.

The decision of Mr. Fox to block this progressive legislation will
please the U.S., and after taking a week of abuse at the hands of
American "zero tolerance" advocates, he will once again be heralded as
a strong ally in the war on drugs.

In fact, proponents of the legislation were always staunch allies --
the law that upset the U.S. was largely designed to assist it in its
thus-far failed efforts to stem the flow of illegal drugs or secure
its border.

One of the chief criticisms directed at the proposal of the former
Liberal government in Canada to decriminalize small amounts of
marijuana for personal use was opposition to it by the U.S.
government. The Liberals failed to enact the law and the new
Conservative government has opted to abandon it altogether, preferring
to continue to treat marijuana use as a crime even though the
substance has been shown to be safer than alcohol. While we would not
go so far as to advocate the decriminalization of small quantities of
drugs like heroin, the Mexican legislation -- as with Canada's own
abandoned bill -- would have shown there was an alternative to the war
on drug-style hysteria which dominates U.S. drug policy. Canada and
Mexico are wrong to submit to this example of American
extraterritoriality.