Mexico recriminalizes drugs
Mexico’s President Vincente Fox decided that he will not sign the bill legalizing limited drug possession, whiic was passed by Congress five days earlier, because of pressure from the United States. The main concern is that the ambiguities in the wording of the bill would make Mexico a new Amsterdam, a vacation spot for drug tourism, thereby boosting the drug market for the country’s drug cartels. Fox’s administration argued that the law was misunderstood, that individual Mexican states could impose their own laws on drug possession, thereby making it the job of state and local police to make small drug arrests, currently done by the federales. The bill could be amended in September, when Congress gets back to work, giving Fox, who has been pushing for the bill since 2001, three months to sign it before he ends his six-year term in December.
Fox Decides Not to Sign Drug Legalization Bill, LATimes.com