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Fiancial Times: Fox in U-turn over bill on possession of drugs


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Looks like he bowed down to American pressure. What a *****. Looks like Amsterdam is still the place to go.

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http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3405c858-dbd4-11da-98a8-0000779e2340.html

Fox in U-turn over bill on possession of drugs

By Adam Thomsonin Mexico City

Published: May 5 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 5 2006 03:00

Vicente Fox, Mexico's president, has made a rapidU-turn on a bill that envisaged decriminalising the possession of small amounts of drugs such as heroin, cocaine and LSD.

Mr Fox will ask Congress to "undertake the necessary corrections to make it absolutely clear that in our country the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a crime. Mexico must deepen the fight against drugs."

Only three days ago, the president's office had said he would sign the bill into law.

It is understood the US pressed Mexico over the proposed legislation. Yesterday the US embassy confirmed the law had caused concern in the US and officials had made their views known.

"We urged them to review the legislation to avoid the perception that drug use would be tolerated, and to prevent drug tourism," Judith Bryan, press attaché at the embassy, told the Financial Times yesterday.

Mexico has long been the most important foreign destination for US holidaymakers. Every year thousands of university students descend on the beaches of Cancún, Acapulco and other resorts. Many take advantage of Mexico's more liberal laws on alcohol consumption.

The legislation attracted international concern after experts pointed out that a clause would have decriminalised the possession of a list of drugs worthy of the most intense hippy love-in of the 1960s.

Unaltered, they said, the legislation would have turned Mexico into one of the most permissive countries, surpassing the Netherlands with its notorious "coffee shops" and even Colombia, which permits the possession of small amounts of marijuana and cocaine.

Anyone aged 18 years or above would have been able to possess five grams of marijuana, half a gram of cocaine, several "tabs" of LSD, a couple of ecstasy pills, at least one hit of heroin, some PCP or angel dust and a kilo of peyote or mescal, the hallucinogenic cactus drug celebrated in the writings of Carlos Castaneda.

Rubén Aguilar, presidential spokesman, yesterday confirmed Mr Fox's decision to return the law to Congress, but denied that the change of plan had been the result of US pressure.

"No way. There hasn't been any pressure," he said, although he added that the US government's views had been "taken into account".

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