Mexico Legalizes Small Quantities of Some Drugs

Alternating between drinking Tecate beer from quart bottles and shooting down shots of heavy tequila, everyone seemed to have a joint in their hand. This was my third visit to the bar, just off First Avenue, near the Plaza Santa Cecilia, where Tijuana’s red light district, The Cahuilla, begins. My lady friend’s oldest son, Miguel, has been smoking pot since he was 12 years-old, when he began working at a nearby restaurant as a bus boy.

After 10 years, now a waiter at the restaurant, still hanging out with friends at the Fiesta; we watch as his wife, a back-up bar maid, reaches under the counter and hands a bag of marijuana to a well dressed businessman, who quickly stuffs it in his briefcase and makes for the massive stairs that lead up to the street.

Mexico last week, in an historic, enlightened, humane move, legalized personal drug use throughout the country. The government also announced that drug addiction would be treated as a medical problem rather than a criminal offense.

Citizens will now be allowed to carry and use 5 grams of marijuana (about four joints) as well as half a gram of cocaine (approx. 4 lines), 50 milligrams of heroin (about three “fire-ups”), 40 milligrams of methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams of LSD.

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