MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
May 14, 204
The Mexico City Legislative Assembly will debate the
legalization of marijuana during an extraordinary session period from May 26-30,
2014. Issues to be discussed include the decriminalization of marijuana, and
designating a “zero priority” assignment to investigations of marijuana possession
for personal use, penalizing only those who carry between .5 and 30 grams and
have an existing criminal record, along with discussing the creation of legal
cannabis dispensaries.
Much debate over this issue has occurred since early 2014
when lawmaker Vidal Llerenas and the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party
(PRD) introduced a bill to legalize marijuana, regulate the amount consumers
can purchase, and to establish a health program to monitor cannabis consumption
and sale. The debate will further follow 2009 reforms which allowed for drug
enforcement policies to be partially determined by state and city authorities
rather than solely by federal authorities, which allowed for the
decriminalization of possessing minute amounts of marijuana.
Proponents of increased decriminalization measures and increases
to the legality of marijuana consumption claim that it allows police forces to
both focus on more significant crimes, while cutting into the revenues of
powerful Mexican drug cartels.
This argument, regarding the loss of revenue to drug cartels
is also promoted by those who favor marijuana legalization in the United
States— in 2012 the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness claimed that recent measures
legalizing marijuana in the states of Washington and Colorado could result in
as high as a 30% loss of revenue for cartels, and as high as a 50% loss of
revenue for the powerful Sinaloa cartel, known for controlling much of Mexico’s
infamous ‘Golden Triangle’ region.
Opponents to increased legalization generally have not
denied this loss of revenue, but instead argue that legalization will still
bring adverse effects, and that marijuana is still a precursor drug to more
significant narcotics. Opponents also fear retaliation and retribution from
cartels, possibly resulting in an increase in the already high rate of violence
targeting civilians or dealers of legal marijuana. Direct confrontation within
Mexico or the United States, via cartel partnership with American gangs, has
also brought fears that legitimate marijuana cultivation and trade may be viewed
as an option for legitimate drug monopolies operated by cartels.
Debate over the issue in the upcoming Mexico City
Legislative Assembly will surely touch on these issues, with the PRD hoping to
create change in Mexico. After years of violence resulting from a failed war on
drugs, many Mexicans are questioning whether this meeting will finally bring
change, or reaffirm the status quo.
