What Does Mexico’s New Drug Law Portend?

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Editor's Note: The RoundUp understands that there's a lot of politics and personal ethics, morals and responsibility involved in this issue of criminalization or decriminalization. As in seat belts, open containers, auto insurance, gun ownership, campaign finance, and taxes we often wonder where the government telling us what to do ends, and our personal responsibility begins.

New York Times
By THE EDITORS

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Mexico last month adopted a law that has been described as decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana and harder drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Other countries in Latin America are considering similar changes in their laws, prompting anti-drug groups in the U.S. to say that pressure from south of the border will push the United States toward decriminalization, if not legalization, of drugs.

What effect will the new policy will have in Mexico and, possibly, in the United States? Will it draw so-called drug tourists from across the border? Is the Obama administration doing the right thing by taking a wait-and-see attitude, in contrast to the Bush administration’s strong opposition to a similar plan proposed in Mexico in 2006?

Tony Payan, political scientist
Jorge Castañeda, former foreign minister of Mexico
Calvina Fay, Drug Free America Foundation Inc.
Peter Reuter, professor of criminology
Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance