Yesterday, at the Institute for Legal Research (IIJ) of the UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico] the seminar "Mariguana: individual autonomy and public policy" was held, where experts from various disciplines discussed the effects of drug, the rights of users and the obligations of the State.
Specialists on the subject who are in favor of the regulation of cannabis said that the Mexican government must assume its responsibility to regulate the production, distribution and consumption of marijuana for personal, medicinal or therapeutic purposes, because with the drug's prohibition, users are at the mercy of the rules established by organized crime, Those against regulation argued the drug´s risks for addiction and for health.
Rafael Camacho Solis*, representative of the Secretariat of Health** and, until a few months ago, director of the Mexico City Institute for the Care and Prevention of Addictions, emphasized that the State must stop evading its responsibility and regulate marijuana, because prohibiting it means traffickers regulate it. He said:
"Today there is no legal market, but a black market, and criminals set the rules. They decide what type of marijuana is sold in Mexico, where, at what price and by whom."Jose Paoli Bolio, of the Institute for Legal Research, remarked that according to a recent UN report, Mexico, along with Afghanistan and Morocco, is one of the three major producers of marijuana in the world, so that the country faces a crossroads with the growing demand for legalization. At the same time, each day illicit profits are higher; in 2012, 2 billion dollars went to organized crime for its production and sale. Spanish original
*Rafael Camacho Solis is a member of a leading political family in Mexico. His brother, Manuel Camacho Solis, who died of cancer in June 2015, was most recently a senator for the Party of the Democratic Revolution. For much of his career, he was a leading politician in the Party of the Institutional Revolution, holding many government positions under Presidents Miguel de la Madrid. He oversaw the reconstruction of Mexico City after the 1985 earthquake. In 1988, he managed the presidential campaign of Carlos Salinas, a friend since they were students at UNAM. Subsequently Salinas appointed him Head of Government of the Federal District (Mexico City). In 1994, he hoped to be PRI's candidate for president, but Salinas did not choose him. He left the PRI in 1995, attempted to found a new party and eventually became a federal deputy and then senator for the PRD.
**The Secretariat of Health oversees drug policy and its Commission Against Health Risks is the body that was directed by the Supreme Court last November to issue licenses to four individuals to be able to grow marijuana for their personal consumption. It is this ruling which led the government to initiate a formal national debate.
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