Latin America has for decades served as a drug battleground. Some of its leaders are looking for a change of approach, though. Two days ago, Uruguay's lower chamber approved a bill legalizing and regulating the cultivation and sale of marijuana, putting it on the fast track to becoming law. Now, Mexico City senator Mario Delgado is busy promoting legislation to be presented by him and his leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) which would make it legal for people to grow marijuana at home and carry up to 25 grams. In an interview with Reforma, Delgado emphasized the importance of a part of that legislation establishing coffee shops where the plant could be consumed legally.
"It's important to create a paradigm which encourages coffee shops for consumers, as a policy like that would eliminate the route of seeking out the drug with organized crime," the senator said.
"We're looking to achieve two ends with the legalization of marijuana: regulate its consumption through the creation of coffee shops and legalizing the use of it as medicine."
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Others told Reforma that they weren't so convinced of the benefits of legalization. Luis Wertman, president of the city's Resident Advisory Board, said legalizing the drug wouldn't do away with the violence associated with it in Mexico.
"Legalization [of marijuana] doesn't reduce violence. Whoever thinks that legalizing a drug makes it so that there's no more dead people is totally wrong," Wertman said.
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Just like in Uruguay, the idea of legalization doesn't enjoy much popular support in Mexico's capital. According to a Reforma survey, 70 percent of Mexico City residents think the production, distribution and sale of marijuana should not be legal in their city. 58 percent of them say the consumption of the plant is "very common" where they live.
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Delgado thinks the coffee-shop idea is one which will "clean up" the practice.
"We should discuss the consumption of marijuana in Mexico, so that it ceases to be a criminal problem and can be seen through a public health lens that would guarantee respect for our rights in personal decisions," he said during the recent Senate forum "The Debate on Drugs in Mexico City: Legalization".
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who belongs to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), says he opposes those types of measures, citing the "gateway" theory on drugs.
"I'm not in favor because it's not just about legalizing marijuana," he told CNN in December. "It seems to me that this would open up the possibility that some sectors of the population could wind up consuming much more harmful things."
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