UNDER U.S. PRESSURE, MEXICO PRESIDENT SEEKS REVIEW OF DRUG LAW

MEXICO CITY -- After intense pressure from the United States,
President Vicente Fox has asked Congress to reconsider a law it passed
last week that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of
drugs as part of a larger effort to crack down on street-level dealing.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, Mr. Fox said the law should be
changed "to make it absolutely clear that in our country the
possession of drugs and their consumption are and continue to be crimes."

Officials from the State Department and the White House's drug control
office met with the Mexican ambassador in Washington Monday and
expressed grave reservations about the law, saying it would draw
tourists to Mexico who want to take drugs and would lead to more
consumption, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the Office of National
Drug Control Policy.

Later in the day, Mexico's chief of the Federal Police, Eduardo Medina
Mora, tried to clarify the law's intent, saying its main purpose was
to enlist help from the state and local police forces. Until now,
selling drugs has been solely a federal offense, and the agents
charged with investigating traffickers are stretched thin, he said.

Mr. Medina Mora, the main architect of the first measure, which Mr.
Fox sent to Congress in January, 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," Mr. Medina Mora said.

The current law has a provision allowing people arrested on charges of
possessing drugs to argue they are addicts and that the drugs were for
personal use. The new law sets an upper limit on how much of each drug
one could possess and still claim to be using it to support a habit,
Mr. Medina Mora said, and stiffens penalties for people possessing
larger amounts of drugs.

But the law drew a firestorm of criticism from American officials on
the border and among American drug enforcement officials in Mexico,
who argue any move toward decriminalization would encourage drug
tourism. Some municipal officials on the border have worried that
cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez would become the Mexican
equivalent of Amsterdam, where marijuana is legal in some bars. Mayor
Jerry Sanders of San Diego, a former police chief, called the bill
"appallingly reckless and incredibly dangerous."

Judith Bryan, a spokeswoman for the American Embassy here, said the
officials in Washington had urged Mexico "to review the legislation
and to avoid the perception that drug use would be tolerated in Mexico
and to prevent drug tourism."

It is unusual for American officials to try to influence internal
Mexican legislation.

Mr. Fox made it clear late Wednesday he would not sign the bill in its
current form, but would send it back to Congress with proposed amendments.