About drug law reform in Mexico

1. What are the current trends regarding drug laws in Mexico?
2. What are the current drug laws in Mexico?
3. What reform proposals and reforms to the drug laws have recently occurred in the country?
4. How have drug laws impacted the prison situation in the country?
5. What does the law say about drug use? Is it a crime in Mexico?
6. How is the drug market in Mexico?
7. How does Mexico positions itself in the international debate on drug policy?
8. What role has civil society played in the debate on drugs?
9. What are the consequences of the war on drugs in Mexico?
10. Relevant drug laws and policy documents in the country

1. What are the current trends regarding drug laws in Mexico?

The arrival in December 2018 of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to the presidency of Mexico appeared to involve a shift in the dominant prohibitionist government discourse on illegal drugs. Since 2006, Mexican drug policies have been characterised by increasing of militarisation and centralisation in order to fight the drug cartels. However, the results were poor in terms of reducing the supply of narcotics and the country experienced a rise in the number of homicides, displacements, forced disappearances and the recurrence of several human rights violations and corrupt practices.    As a consequence, the newly installed president emphasised a change in the war on drugs, focused more on reducing violence and homicides rather than going after drug lords. “Officially there is no longer a war on drugs” said AMLO. “The government’s main goal is to guarantee national security. This is essential; the other [chasing drug lords] is for the spectacle. We have lost too much time on the latter, and it has not solved anything” (See more). Despite these and other declarations, the government soon installed a National Guard to tackle the country’s drug trafficking problem: an elite body composed of military police and naval forces, members of the federal police and the National Gendarmerie. The project was approved unanimously by 32 local congress members on the condition the National Guard kept a civil approach, to avoid the militarization that Mexican society faced during Felipe Calderón’s presidency in 2006 – 2012 (Read more about the controversy around the National Guard).    At the same time, the new administration, part of the Morena party (National Regeneration Movement) in alliance with civil society groups, openly proposed a change in direction in drug policy, especially for cannabis. Inspired by countries like Canada and Uruguay and some states in the US, where the recreational use of marijuana has been legalised, and supported by an increasing number of Mexican citizens, the government presented a new law proposal at the end of 2018 to regulate the production, commercialisation and consumption of marijuana. It was helpful that the government faced a legal obligation to draft new legislation, after five separate Supreme Court decisions ruled on the unconstitutionality of cannabis prohibition (see further down).      Mexico was perceived in some circles to be a progressive country since it was one of the early promoters of a revision of the current UN drug control model, and pressed for a Special Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGASS) that happened in 2016. Additionally, Ernesto Zedillo, a former president of Mexico, has played a role in advocating for a change from the current war on drugs as a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, an agency that contributes to the dissemination of scientific results and evidence about the effects of drugs and drug policies, and advocates for pragmatic, rational and drug policies that respect human rights.   In public opinion, nevertheless, a small majority of Mexicans disapproves of the legalisation of cannabis, although this is decreasing. Whereas in November 2015 just 19 per cent of the population approved of legalisation, in 2016 this rose to 29% (See more). The perception varies depending on the purpose of legalisation. A poll of 2018 shows that whereas 86.8% is in favour of legal cannabis for medical reasons, 71% said no to legalisation for recreational use (See more).   

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2. What are the current drug laws in Mexico?

In spite of the long tradition of prohibitionist policies regarding psychoactive substances, the regulation of cannabis markets in countries such as Canada, Uruguay and several states in the US has influenced in the debate around regulation of cannabis (for medical purposes) in Mexico. In 2017, the former president Enrique Peña Nieto signed a decree to legalize medical marijuana throughout a series of reforms to the General Health Law and Federal Criminal Code and appointed the Ministry of Health to design and execute public policies to regulate the medicinal use of pharmacological derivatives of all varieties of cannabis, including its content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The Ministry is in charge of establishing rules for research and national production of medicines derivative from cannabis. The decree contemplates commercialisation, export and import of cannabis products with 1% or less THC and decriminalises farming or harvesting cannabis for medical and scientific purposes. Lastly, the Secretary of Health is in charge of reinforcing programs of prevention, rehabilitation and control of cannabis consumption, as well as treatment for people with problematic cannabis use. 

Although the original regulation limited legalisation for imported medicinal cannabis products, Congress approved national production and established a time limit for the Executive to publish the regulations for the licensing process. However, after more than a year of the approval of the law, both production and imports are currently paralysed, as the Executive refuses to publish the regulatory laws needed for granting licenses. Consequently, in practice, medicinal cannabis remains illegal.   On the other hand, in Mexico several ministries are involved in drugs control and regulation: Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection, Defence and Health. The bulk of existing drug legislation is formed by stipulations in the General Health Act and the 1994 reforms to the Federal Criminal Code. An important change introduced by these reforms was separating drugs (and the range of crimes related to them) into distinct articles, increasing the amount of punishable offences. Sentences were increased to between 10 and 25 years for the production, transportation, trafficking, sale and supply of drugs. Sentences were reduced, however, for planting, cultivating and harvesting drug crops for the purpose of consumption. In a significant change from earlier legislation, the act states that:   “proceedings will not be initiated against a person who is not a drug addict and who is detained for the first time in possession of a quantity of narcotics included in Article 193 and when the quantity is determined to be for personal consumption [and] no penalty will be applied to drug addicts who possess narcotics listed in Article 193 strictly for personal consumption.”   The Federal Law Against Organised Crime was approved in 1996, exponentially increasing sentences for any crime committed as part of a criminal conspiracy. This law also established the notion of "preventative detention", which was later incorporated into Mexico’s 2008 constitution. It allows for detention of up to 80 days without an arrest warrant or charge, thus allowing individuals to be detained solely on the basis of being suspected of having links to organised crime.   Although the crimes and associated sentences defined in the 1990s remain on the statute books, a change in the law (August 2009) meant they only were applied in cases involving wholesale trafficking. This Law for small-scale selling of drugs, informally known as Narcomenudeo, reformed Article 478 of the General Health Act and was adopted by the parliament in April 2009 and implemented as of 21 August that year. It eliminated all penalties for possession for personal consumption up to the following amounts: 5g of marijuana, 2g of opium, 500mg of cocaine, 50mg of heroin or 40mg of methamphetamines, and increased penalties for quantities above these limits, assuming the drugs were meant for sale. It also stipulated that addicts can only be subjected to obligatory treatment after their third arrest for a drug-related crime, and increased the sentences for a range of crimes, including sale of drugs to minors or selling near schools.   The law for small-scale selling of drugs also set the threshold for trafficking prosecutions at one thousand times the maximum amount allowed for personal consumption. This could result in ‘drug mules’ that swallow capsules containing more than 500g of cocaine or more than 50g of heroin, for example, being tried as large-scale traffickers subject to the harshest sentences.  

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3. What reform proposals and reforms to the drug laws have recently occurred in the country?

After the elections in July 2018, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) changed the discourse about cannabis in Mexico, with more than 13 initiatives presented in the parliament aiming to regulate its market. On November 8th 2018, Olga Sánchez Cordero, secretary of the Interior, presented in the congress the General Law for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis, an initiative that seeks to regulate the production, sale and consumption of cannabis. The bill, promoted by the president’s party Morena, establishes that adults can carry up to 30 grams of marijuana, grow a maximum of 20 plants and harvest as much as 480 grams per year (See the proposal). The project also foresees the creation of cooperatives, which will have up to 150 members and could produce up to 480 grams a year per member. Regarding consumption, the proposed bill allows smoking in public spaces and follows the same regulations as tobacco, which implies sanctions for selling marijuana to minors. The initiative also expects the creation of the Mexican Institute for Regulation and Control of cannabis, in charge of developing the rules for production, commercialisation and consumption. Lastly, the bill also allowed cannabis production for selling with a preliminary license, as well as industrial, medical and therapeutic production (See more).    On the other hand, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong and Manuel Añorve Baños, members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the former president’s political party, presented in 2018 a similar initiative to reform several articles to the General Health Law, as well as the Federal Criminal Code and the Federal Law against Organized Crime, in order to eliminate the absolute prohibition of recreational marijuana. The bill hoped to remove the authorisation from the Secretary of Health to cultivate, harvest, possess, transport, use and consumption of cannabis with recreational purposes. The project also increases the personal possession limit from 5 to 28 grams but does not specify the amounts allowed for cultivation, instead but leaving them to the General Health Law. The commercialisation, selling and distribution of any cannabis product, however, remain illegal (See more).   These initiatives received a strong impetus from the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice that declared the absolute prohibition of recreational use of marijuana unconstitutional in October 2018. The Supreme Court ruled positively about two specific rights related to legal protection of cannabis use, a decision that reached sufficient jurisprudence to force Congress to modify the law related to marijuana. As explained in an article by Jorge Hernández Tinajero, drug policy specialist, jurisprudence is created when the same court rules in the same sense and on the same subject on five consecutive occasions. Once jurisprudence is established, any other court in the country must resolve in the same way in any similar case that falls within the scope of its jurisdiction.    The decision of the Supreme Court set a precedent in the cannabis law in Mexico and has several implications: first, it orders the Federal Sanitary Risks Commission (COFEPRIS) to grant a permit to the complainants (who requested a permit from this agency) to grow cannabis under certain conditions; second, it establishes the unconstitutionality of some sections of national laws dealing with cannabis; and finally, it states the limits of the State's legal action against any private decision of adults, as long as they do not affect third parties. Hernández states that: “The new jurisprudence thus protects all those adults who decide to use cannabis privately, regardless of the purpose. Since the plaintiffs explicitly asked to grow their own plants, arguing that they refused to obtain cannabis in the illegal market, the Court determined that they could grow them in private spaces, and proof that the cultivation has no commercial purpose, it is carried out between adults and does not affect third parties”.   According to one author, the most important aspects of the Supreme Court resolution are: 1. the Court establishes that the complete prohibition of cannabis in Mexico is unconstitutional; 2. recognises that the Mexican State guarantees – and must protect – the free development of personality and personal autonomy as inalienable rights of adults; 3. the law regarding cannabis in Mexico has not changed, despite the Court’s resolutions, which means that any act related to the cannabis plant remains illegal and constitutes a crime. Consumption is allowed, nonetheless, but any act inherent to it is and constitutes a crime; 4. the new jurisprudence, however, means that if one cultivates for oneself, and within the limits established, but for some reason is surprised by the authorities, the judge will have to rule in favour of the grower and leave him free with everything and his plants, since the State protects the aforementioned legal rights: the right to personal autonomy and the free development of personality; 5. The Court’s decision opens the door for users to have an alternative to the black market, which represents a challenge for the current legislation that will have to be modified given that nowadays it is more dangerous to cultivate, even for oneself, than to buy in illicit circuits. “In other words, the law itself now encourages what it is intended to fight”; 6. the jurisprudence does not establish that cannabis cultivation must be just individual, so it opens up the possibility of forming crop associations in the future.   The Supreme Court verdict, however, does not allow the commercialization or the use of other psychotropic substances, and forced the government to introduce new legislation through Congress before October 31st 2019.    Consequently, members of the Morena party presented the General Law for Regulation and Control of Cannabis in October 2019, but due to a lack of consensus within the parliament, the due date was postponed until April 30th 2020. Because of the Covid-19 emergency, the deadline was again extended and on November 19th 2020 the Parliament finally approved the adult-use marijuana legalisation bill. This bill allows users to carry up to 28 grams and grow a maximum of four plants per person, and 6 per household. This new legislation also regulates the hemp industry but does not address medical cannabis. Although approval by the lower legislative chamber is pending as of December 15, 2020 and needs to be signed by the president López Obrador, the law has been criticised for its social justice implications; the regulation benefits large companies to the detriment of small scale growers and consumers by limiting home growing. The bill also keeps the prohibition approach by criminalising users that exceed the allowed amounts, and perpetuates the illegal market (see the critiques).   On another topic, on August 2019 a judge issued two court decisions that allowed two people to have an authorisation "for personal and recreational use" of cocaine. This decision, however, does not imply the legalisation of cocaine consumption but has been perceived as a first step towards decriminalisation of different substances.  

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4. How have drug laws impacted the prison situation in the country?

Although the past administrations put a big effort into applying rigorous and strict legislation, the use and commercialization of illicit drugs has increased in the past decade. As noted by the Report of the Global Commission of Drug Policy 2018, prohibition has not only been inefficient but has empowered and enriched organised crime, boosted levels of violence and increased the imprisonment rate. According to the report La política de drogas en México: causa de una tragedia nacional, in despite of the changes introduced on marijuana consumption and other substances throughout the Narcomenudeo Law (that eliminated all sanctions for established amounts for personal use and focuses on combating the retail drug trade), Mexico still prosecutes and imprisons people who use drugs, as well as women who carry illicit substances without criminal records and small-scale sellers (who later get replaced by others). A report by Mexico Unido contra el Delito shows that in 2014, around 410,758 people were incarcerated for drug crimes (41 percent of the total jailed), from which 307,133 (75 percent) were simple possession or consumption. Another study showed that in 2016, 43.8 percent of arrests at the federal level were related to drug crimes (See Sobredosis carcelaria y política de drogas en América Latina)   This situation has brought about an increase in the number of people in jail and has contributed to an overcrowding problem in Mexican prisons that in 2016 were already more than 10 per cent over-full (See further data). According to data from 2016, the simple possession of illicit drugs represented the fourth most committed crime with nearly 5,700 people arrested, compared to drug trafficking that was the tenth-place offense with around 3,200 people prosecuted. Most recent data also shows an increase on crime incidence rate related to drugs; in January 2019, for example, the number of alleged drug crimes was 5,661 cases, compared to 4,862 cases for the same period in 2018, which represents an increase of 16.4 percent. And a comparison between December 2018 – when the new government came to power – and January 2019, the crime incidence rate related to drugs also increased 22.77 percent, higher than the crime incidence in total which increased by 9.03 percent (See the Crime Incidence Report).    A particular situation has been the increase of women incarcerated for drug offences (See graphic). Data from 2014 shows that 44.8 percent of the women in jail were for drugs crimes. More women get involved with drug-related crimes due to financial difficulties or pressure from their partners who are already involved in the activity (read more).    According to Carlos Zamudio, a drugs expert, the growth in the numbers responds to a government policy of increasing prosecutions that has not necessarily translated into a reduction neither in the drug market nor of consumption. One of the reasons for the latter, notes Zamudio, is that the behaviours that are pursued – especially possession – are not only committed by narcomenudistas, but by simple users, which results in the police wasting efforts to stop and punish regular users instead of dealing with real narcomenudistas. Furthermore, the Narcomenudeo Law has become an excuse for the police to establish what Zamudio calls “institutionalised extortion”, in which the majority of the victims are young users caught with a certain amount of cannabis who are asked for a bribe in order to avoid prosecution. “When a user or his surroundings smell like cannabis, the police stop him for a routine check. In case that they find enough (or supposed) evidence, the person can be sent to the Public Ministry by the alleged crime of drug dealing. This implies – in addition to the loss of confidence in the authority by the users – the legal possibility that some police officers detain users for possession of drugs because they did not accept or could give a morbid, or as a way to avoid persecution of narcomenudistas that could corrupt them. In any way, by presenting alleged narcomenudistas the police justify its work” explains Zamudio (Read the complete article by Zamudio).   Another reason behind the overpopulation is due to the use of preventive detention that is established by the constitution to be applied in what are considered serious offences, such as public health offences, the category drug consumption falls into. According to the 194 article of the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure, every offense related to drugs is considered a serious felony; therefore any person accused of committing this kind of offence has to go to prison even if she is innocent. As mentioned by Luis María Aguilar in the report Statistics on the state penitentiary system in Mexico, the preventive detention has resulted in “exorbitant costs to maintain precarious, overcrowded and dangerous prisons, criminal schools for offenders of little malice, connivance between prosecuted and sentenced, separated families, truncated projects and lives wasted for those convicted without conviction, those absolved after years of litigation” (see Report here). According to the same report, as in the rest of Latin America, Mexico has an estimated 40 per cent of its inmates in jail with no sentence.     Due to the overloaded conditions, the government has tried to decongest the penitentiary system by releasing non-violent offenders sentenced for simple possession of cannabis throughout the National Law of Criminal Execution. However, up to 2017 just 38 cases benefited from early release.

 

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5. What does the law say about drug use? Is it a crime in Mexico?

It is not a crime to use psychoactive substances in Mexico, but possession of a drug for the purpose of using it is classified as a crime. Even so, possession does not carry a prison sentence if the quantity held does not exceed the upper limits established by the Guidance Table (see below), and providing the person is not carrying drugs in the places stipulated in Article 475 of the General Health Law (schools, prisons, etc).

As noted in the study La política de drogas en México: una trajedia nacional, despite the decriminalisation of drug use in Mexico, consumers are often treated as criminals rather than as the subjects of public health policy. People who use drugs, according to the report, are victims of arbitrary use of force, such as torture, illegal detention and imprisonment. Once in jail, conditions are very precarious and prisoners often lack access to fundamental rights; they are vulnerable to contracting HIV from sharing needles, unprotected sex, and rape.  

In the case of problematic consumers, Mexico provides limited access to treatment. Mexico has only 43 public residential treatment centres and a number of costly private centres for the exclusive use of the wealthy. The cost of the treatment, the distance and the quality of the service are some of the limitations that users face. Women find more barriers to get access to these kinds of programs, says the report, due to harassment and stigmatisation: while 9.3% of men who use drugs and 22.1% with substance use disorder underwent a treatment, just 3.9% and 12.8% of women respectively did so.    In addition, Mexico introduced Drug Courts (Tribunales para Tratamiento de Adicciones – TTA) in 2009. Inspired by the therapeutic justice model in United States, the TTAs are conceived as an “alternative justice mechanism to solve criminal conflicts, reduce drug consumption, decrease incidence crime rate, reintegrate the person to her family or community and articulate the resources of the state” (Read La expansion de los tribunales de droga en Mexico). These courts, however, are not specialised tribunals but follow specific procedures within the ordinary courts. “If a person is eligible to start the program, the criminal procedure is halted as long as the person complies with the conditions stipulated by a judge. If the person does not complete the programme, his or her criminal procedure continues”, explains the study La política de drogas en México: una trajedia nacional. This shows that the treatment is part of the criminal justice system and not to the health system.    Regarding drug consumption figures, Mexico registers a low proportion compared to overall global rates. The most frequent drug is marijuana, with an increasing rate, while cocaine and inhalants remain stable. The regions where the war on drugs and drug-related violence have had more impact are also the ones with increased consumption, such as the border cities in Baja California, as this area is one of the corridors for drug trafficking where people tend to consume more. (Find here a detailed report on drugs consumption in Mexico by States)  

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6. How is the drug market in Mexico? 

Mexico is not only a corridor for drugs smuggling but also a production centre. The UN World Drugs Report 2018 reports an expansion of the drug markets as well as the range of drugs. Mexico is one of the producers of opium and one of the suppliers of heroin (and morphine) to the United States. Analysis of heroin samples in the US over the last decade shows that 90% of production comes from Mexico, and the country is also responsible for the expansion of synthetic opioids traffic in the region. Regarding cocaine, the country serves as a corridor for drugs coming from Colombia or Central America, that later are introduced into the US by car or trucks, run by organised crime groups. Trafficking, however, showed a decrease in 2016 as it went from 70% of the overall cocaine inflows in 2013 to 39% in 2016.     Mexico also appears as one of the most frequently reported sources of transnational shipments of cannabis the United States, coming mainly from Sinaloa state and its surroundings (Click here to read the Drug Market Report).   

This illicit market, according to a study carried by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, generates an estimated gross revenues of 600,000 million Mexican pesos (around 30 billion US dollars), more than the pharmaceutical industry creates.  

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7. How does Mexico positions itself in the international debate on drug policy?

As one of the countries hardest hit by drug trafficking and the war on drugs, in 1993 Mexico pushed an initiative that would later become known as the UNGASS of 1998. Its objective was to hold an international conference within the framework of the United Nations to discuss aspects of global policies on drugs. Issues on the table included: the need to review international conventions on drugs and their classification of cannabis and coca; options for decriminalisation; and practices for harm reduction that some European countries had started to explore. Mexico was suggesting that there were better ways of dealing with drug-related problems than those imposed by the United States.    1993: the Mexican government sends a letter concerning control of drugs to the Secretary General of the UN. It has a major impact and sets the stage for a special, high-level session of the General Assembly to discuss the world drug problem. Mexico says in the letter that there needs to be great emphasis on the demand side, because “drug consumption is the driving force that generates drug production and trafficking”. It also strongly criticises US anti-drug operations on Mexican territory and the US government’s unilateral certification mechanism. It attacks “attempts to impose hegemony” and calls for a “balanced approach to be taken seriously”.   1998: Mexico’s proposal for the agenda becomes reality at the UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs (UNGASS). Unfortunately, the assembly ends by reconfirming the prohibitionist approach and the rigidity of existing policies – precisely those issues that Mexico was questioning. During the conference, Mexico and Colombia express their frustration about the inherent imbalances in the international control system of drugs, with the result that several “responsibilities of the north” are incorporated as important elements in UNGASS 1998’s Political Declaration and Plan of Action. They include demand reduction, money laundering, chemical inputs, synthetic drugs and financing for alternative development.    September 2012: President Felipe Calderón uses his speech at the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York to ask member nations to undertake a “serious analysis” of the prohibitionist slant on drug consumption.    October 2012: the presidents of Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia send a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking the United Nations to lead a discussion to search for solutions using new and more effective approaches. See the Presidents’ joint declaration.   November 2012: At a meeting with several Central American presidents, Felipe Calderón asks the Organisation of American States (OAS) “to undertake a serious analysis of the impact the legalisation of marijuana would have on the region.” He also asks the OAS to provide as quickly as possible the hemispheric study of drugs requested by the countries participating in the previous Summit of the Americas.    16 and 17 November 2012: At the conclusion of the Iberian-American Summit held in the Cádiz, President Calderón and all the other presidents of the region express in the Declaration of Cádiz their support for: “a special session of the U.N. General Assembly on the world problem of drugs, to be held no later than 2015, with the goal of evaluating the successes and limitations of current policies to address this problem, particularly the violence caused by the production, trafficking and consumption of drugs in the world.”   January 2013: Mexico is the sole Latin American country to object to Bolivia's proposal on the coca leaf. This was an unexpected move from the new Mexican government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, which had up to that point endorsed the debate and the changes in drug policy.   June 2013: At the 43rd General Assembly of the OAS in Antigua, Guatemala, the Mexican delegation stresses the need to prevent crime and consumption and not to criminalise consumers "in some cases". Mexico is among a group of countries proposing to convene a UN General Assembly Special Session to continue the dialogue on tackling the drug problem. The proposal is approved unanimously. It is finally decided an UNGASS will be held in March 2016.    October 2013: At the Ibero-American Summit held in Panama, President Peña Nieto says he is open to engaging in a continent-wide debate to address the problem of drug use and trafficking: “My government has stated that it opposes the legalisation of drugs, but we are entirely open to the idea of holding a wide-ranging debate at the continental level, not just in Mexico, which will allow us to evaluate and review what is going on today in our continent and in the world as a whole.” In an interview given to El País in June 2014, Peña Nieto explains the need for a debate on cannabis regulation: “...marijuana legalization is an emerging phenomenon. Our take and question to ourselves is to revise and sit down and discuss the issue, revising the policies followed the past 30 to 40 years that have only given us more drug consumption and production. For this reason, these policies have failed. That needs to be revised.”   March 2015: Intervention of Mexico during the Special Segment in preparation for the UNGASS 2016, the 58th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). Mexico's ambassador to the UN, Jorge Montaño, spoke in favour of "international regulation and free use of marijuana for recreational purposes."   March 2019: Juan Ramón de la Fuente, permanent representative in the UN for Mexico, intervened at the 62nd Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND62), in which he defended a regulatory framework for certain narcotics instead of pure prohibition. His presentation included five main points: 1. A human enforcement of the legislation that allows to have a catalogue with alternative sanctions instead of imprisonment; 2. Privilege a public health approach that requires better preventive measures as well as effective harm reduction actions; 3. A differentiate control of substances, as the case of cannabidol; 4. Violence has been a tool for delinquency and criminal groups associated with the illicit drug market, that usually feed on vulnerable communities. This phenomenon requires a response that offers better services and options for development that can work together with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals; 5. More efficient international cooperation that works more as a bespoke suit than a straitjacket.    

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8. What role has civil society played in the debate on drugs?

Civil Society has played an important role in raising awareness about drugs regulation in Mexico and pushing the cannabis issue through the courts. In 2016, on the eve of the Special Session on Drugs of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGASS 2016), several civil society organizations submitted a declaration in which urged the Mexican government to include four main points in its intervention during the meeting. The declaration includes 1. Change in the war on drugs discourse towards a human rights approach that includes the right to autonomy and personal freedom, as well as the right to physical and mental health; 2. Reaffirm that drug use should be treated as a public health issue rather than a criminal one. This includes the incorporation of drug treatments and particular attention on prevention in vulnerable populations, and ensure the prioritisation of harm reduction public policies; 3. Advocate for the effective decriminalisation of drug use and personal possession, and implement measures to eradicate corruption and strengthen democratic institutions; 4. Encouraging the development of better indicators to establish the effectiveness of police interventions and encouraging the development of better indicators to establish the effectiveness of police interventions.   With the election of Andres Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico, 129 civil organisations and 573 citizens sent a letter supporting the government’s approach of decriminalising drugs in Mexico. The letter demands an end of 12 years of prohibitionist measures and urges the government to establish a plan for how to regulate drugs instead of debating whether to regulate or not. “Mexico now has a population ready to build other roads. There is a critical mass of citizens who are proposing alternative drug policies”, says the letter. Through this letter, several organisations declare the failure of the war on drugs and encourage the government to regulate illicit drugs as one of the pillars for the pacification of the country.    Regarding the public opinion, a survey carried in Latin America in 2017 assessing attitudes toward cannabis revealed that more 40 percent of Mexicans are in favour in legalizing marijuana in general. The survey was published in the International Journal of Drug Policy and also shows that in Mexico 57 percent have a favourable response regarding recreational marijuana use (Read the article here). Paradoxically, since the intensification of the punitive policies, Mexican society has become more supportive of the legalisation of cannabis. The survey shows that whereas seven percent of the population were in favour of legalisation, in 2017 it was supported by 41 percent. The study also presents a correlation between countries where consumption is higher and tolerance towards legalisation. 41 percent of Mexicans consider that military intervention in combating drug trafficking is not effective. 

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9. What are the consequences of the war on drugs in Mexico?

Since 2006, the Mexican government has applied a punitive and prohibitionist approach for combatting drugs trafficking and use, which has resulted in serious levels of human rights violations and widespread violence. Between 2006 and 2011, the army presence increased 70 percent, which brought about a rise in the number of confrontations against criminal organisations that in turn increased their violent actions in response to the militarisation. Although the number of detentions went up since the beginning of the war on drugs, the use of lethal force, torture and other illegal practices also rose. A study published in 2018 shows that inmates report different types of abuse such as electric shocks, burns and immersion in water, among others. “We have argued that this kind of abuse goes beyond beatings or abuse; they require special instruments, as well as an institutional space, whether informal or clandestine, to be carried out,” concludes the study.    Different studies indicate that the levels of violence and the security crisis experienced in Mexico in the recent years have been causally related to the anti-drug-trafficking strategy carried by the state. Whereas in 2006 the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI) reported 10,452 homicides, in 2011 there were 27,213. By 2017 the number of homicides had reached 31,000, with no signs of a fall. Civil society has been in the middle of the war between the cartels and the state, which has seen more than 320,000 people displaced from their hometowns since 2006, from which 68 per cent of the cases were directly related to the violence generated by the organised crime groups. According to the Mexican government, the war on drugs has also resulted in more than 35,000 disappearances since 2006.    

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10. Relevant drug laws and policy documents in the country

Legislative and Government Documents

• Ley General de Salud
• Código Penal Federal
• Ley Federal contra la Deliincuencia Organizada
• Ley de Narcomenudeo

Studies, surveys and other documents

• Critical reflections on the National Addiction Surveys (ENAs) in Mexico - Informa Health Care, UK - By: Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Pamela Ruiz Flores López, July 2014
• Illegal Drugs Markets in Mexico City - Cuadernos CUPIDH 6 Colectivo para una Política Integral hacia las Drogas. By: Carlos Zamudio Angles, 2013
• Mujeres, delitos de drogas y sistemas penitenciarios en América Latina, IDPC. Por: Corina Giacomello, Octubre de 2013
• Mexico: Drug policy and security in the first six months of the Enrique Peña Nieto administration, IDPC Briefing Paper, by Corina Giacomello, August 2013
• Encuesta Nacional de Adicciones 2011. Drogas ilícitas - Comisión Nacional contra las Adicciones CONADIC, CENADIC, and other institutions, 2012
• Other CONADIC publications
• Publications by Centro Nacional para la Prevención y el Control de la Adicciones CENADIC
• (Des)proporcionalidad y delitos contra la salud en México - CIDE Documento de Trabajo No. 59. Por: Catalina Pérez Correa, Karen Silva y Carlos de la Rosa - 2012
• Primera encuesta de usuarios de drogas ilegales en la Ciudad de México, Colectivo para una Política Integral hacia las Drogas CUPIDH, Octubre 2012
• Mariguana DF. El mercado y sus dimensiones: una propuesta para usuarios y autoridades, Cuadernos CUPIDH 5. Por Carlos Zamudio Angles and Jorge Hernández Tinajero, 2012
• Otras publicaciones de CUPIDH
• Biblioteca de la organización espolea.org

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