By Dr. Jerome R. Corsi

New law will undermine U.S. enforcement efforts

Remarkably, Mexico, in the middle of a drug war that has begun to spill over into the United States, lacks only the signature of President Felipe Calderon to sign into law a bill that would legalize a variety of drugs in Mexico for recreational use, according to Fox News in Houston.

The bill, which was slipped through the Mexican Congress at the height of the swine flu scare, would legalize possession of 5 grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of cocaine, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine, and up to 50 milligrams of heroin.

The bill does not require violators to enter treatment to avoid jail.

Instead, the bill waives jail time altogether, as long as those caught stay within the drug limits, recommending rather than mandating treatment options.

Fox News has reported since 2006 that Mexico’s Congress has been attempting to pass legislation that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin for personal use.

Evidently, the thinking in Mexico is that since the nation shows no sign of being able to beat the drug cartels, why not just join them?

The move is certain to strain relations with the United States.

WND has repeatedly reported on the “Merida Initiative” under which the U.S. Congress at the urging of the Bush administration allocated in December 2009 some $197 million of the $500 million authorized under a planned $1.6 billion program.

The Merida Initiative aims to provide U.S. military assistance in the form of training and equipment to the Mexican military to help it combat drug cartels.

Earlier in 2008, Congress funded $99 million under the Merida Initiative to Mexico through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Will the Obama administration remain equally enthusiastic about helping Mexico’s military fight the drug war if Mexico makes recreational drug use legal?

The Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center, or NDIC, revealed in its National Drug Threat Assessment 2009 that Mexican drug cartels are “the greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States,” reporting that Mexican drug cartels now distribute drugs in 230 U.S. cities.

“Mexico and U.S.-based Mexican drug traffickers employ advanced communication technology and techniques to coordinate their illicit drug trafficking activities,” the NDIC reported. “Law enforcement reporting indicates that several Mexican drug trafficking organizations maintain cross-border communication centers in Mexico near the U.S.-Mexico border to facilitate coordinated cross-border smuggling operations.”

In the last two years, the Mexican drug war has resulted in an estimated 8,000 deaths in Mexico.

The picture should be familiar to all Americans: images from Mexico of kidnappings, murders of law enforcement officers who take the drug war seriously, caches of confiscated weapons including automatic weapons and mountains of cash.

If Mexico thinks legalizing drugs will take the profits from the cartels, the country probably should give the matter a second thought.

Regardless of which drugs Mexico legalizes, the cartels undoubtedly will produce more potent and exotic varieties.

Red Alert would not be surprised to see the cartels make an attempt to control any companies Mexico authorizes to manufacture and distribute the illegal drugs.

If Mexico legalizes drugs, perhaps U.S. drug users will decide it is safer to move south of the border to enjoy their drug habit.

“Could Mexican cities become Latin Amsterdams, flooded by drug users seeking penalty-free tokes and toots?” the Los Angeles Times mused.

The Times tried to justify Calderon’s possible reasoning arguing that: “It makes sense to distinguish between small-time users and big-time dealers, when re-targeting major crime-fighting resources away from the consumers and toward the dealers and their drug lord bosses.”

At any rate, the law could easily become a decided advantage for those cartels that pay workers in drugs instead of cash.

Besides, since the law does not appear to apply drug penalties below the specified limits for under-age users, the drug cartels might just use the law to expand their marketing by making it easier to hand out samples freely, including to children.

Red Alert has already warned that the Obama administration might join Mexico in supporting legislation to legalize drugs in the United States, while simultaneously moving to restrict the Second Amendment, so as to restrict the number of U.S. guns the Obama administration believes get in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels.