From Yahoo News
Possessing marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if the drugs are carried in small amounts for personal use, under legislation passed by the Mexican Congress.
Imagine if the U.S. were to implement a similar law.
How many people whose only crime was to sit around and smoke pot would be kept out of jail? How much money would we save by not having to house people who really have no business being stuck in jail?
Plenty of people still believe that strong drug laws are needed. And while some consumers of drugs can be bad people who do illegal things, often to support their habit or maybe even due to just being on drugs, there are plenty of sober criminals out there as well.
Consider all the occasional users out there who get caught once and due to crazy laws get stuck in prison for years. Or the more than occasional users who are otherwise indistinguishable from anyone else. Most jails and prisons aren't really for rehabilitation, do we really want or need people who haven't done anything else wrong put there?
I do not consider Mexico's new law perfect or the best answer. I don't really know much about the measurements they say are individual use are and if that is a normal amount or extremely large or small. It also provides for greater punishment of anyone who has more than the amount set out as individual use. But the general idea of relaxing drug laws for individual users is something to consider.
I'm not sure if I support decriminalzing all illegal drugs, this diary isn't really about that. I've never actually done an illegal drug so I can't say I believe they are worth doing and having readily available, etc. I just would like some of the more out there, war on drugs, zero tolerance type drug laws to go. I do believe enacting a law similar to the one Mexico is about to pass would be a step in the right direction.
p.s. please forgive me if the writing is really atrocious, I am not much of a writer (plus it's my 1st diary)