Fox Decides Not to Sign Drug Legalization Bill

President Vicente Fox reversed course Wednesday and decided not to sign a drug legalization bill that critics on both sides of the border said would turn Mexico into a narcotics haven.

Fox administration officials had said Tuesday that the president would sign the bill, which set generous limits for the possession of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, opium, amphetamines and several natural and synthetic hallucinogens.

Late Wednesday, the Fox administration said in a news release that the president would return the bill to Congress to “make the needed corrections so it is absolutely clear in our country the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a criminal offense.”

The legislation was intended to close loopholes in current law that grant judges discretion to waive prison sentences for addicts. Judges have exploited the loopholes on behalf of traffickers, officials said.

But rather than apply only to addicts, the bill -- which Mexico’s Congress approved early Friday at the end of its 2005-06 legislative session -- was amended to include anyone older than 18.

News that Mexico would allow any adult to possess and use opiates, marijuana, LSD, Ecstasy and peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, drew international criticism.

Recreational drug users hailed it as the one of the most progressive laws in the world.

U.S. officials began meeting privately with Mexican officials this week, trying to discourage what they described as a welcome mat for drug tourists and the expansion of the domestic market for Mexican drug cartels.

The Fox administration went on the offensive Tuesday, with Mexico’s top law enforcement official holding a news conference to say the bill was misunderstood and was in fact a strong new tool in the war against drugs.

States could impose their own fines on even the allowable amounts of drugs, and unruly narco-tourists would be escorted to airports and sent home, officials said.

The law would have also given state and local police the authority to make drug arrests, now the job of federal police.

But criticism surfaced publicly Wednesday when U.S. Embassy officials called on Mexican officials to review the bill to avoid the perception that Mexico tolerates drug use. Fox has been seen as a strong ally of U.S. efforts to crack down on the multibillion-dollar drug trade.

Mexican Sen. Jorge Zermeno, a member of Fox’s National Action Party, spoke twice in favor of passage during Senate debates last week but said he was surprised to learn from a reporter Tuesday that cocaine was allowed under the legislation.

He also said it was a mistake to broaden the bill to include all adults, rather than limit it to addicts.

The bill could be amended in September when congressional committees return to work. Fox, who by law cannot seek reelection, ends his six-year term in December.