"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Taking a lead from the United States, Mexico should allow states to begin legalizing marijuana while broader efforts are in limbo, a senior government official said,
as the country seeks ways to tackle record gang violence.
Tourism minister Enrique de la Madrid, confronting rising lawlessness in and around the resort cities of Cancun and Los Cabos, said it made no sense for Mexico to maintain prohibition given permissive U.S. policies in states such as California.
"I think in Mexico we should move towards regulating it at state level," he said in an interview late on Wednesday, calling it, "illogical" to divert funds from fighting kidnapping, rape, and murder to arrest people using marijuana.
President Enrique Pena Nieto has said Mexico and the United States should not pursue diverging policies on marijuana. In 2016, Pena Nieto backed a bill to allow Mexicans to carry an ounce of the drug, but the measure stalled in Congress.
Drug policy is one of the major issues in Mexico's July 1 presidential election. The front-runner, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has even floated the idea of exploring an amnesty for criminal gangs to curb the violence.
Keeping marijuana illegal was to "give away" money to the gangs, he said. "And with the money, these men are bribing more police, buying more weapons and causing more violence."
While stressing he was not advocating drug use, de la Madrid said the court ruling, which is for now limited to the litigants in question, showed it was time to act."
"I'm against a bad policy that leads to more violence in Mexico," he said."
~ Article and pictures found @: Reuters
