Mexican cardinals endorse idea of debating legalization of drugs

Two Mexican cardinals have endorsed a proposal by President Felipe Calderon to open a debate on the merits of drug legalization in a country beset with violence attributed to narcotics-trafficking cartels. Cardinals Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City and Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara did not express support for drug legalization but called for the issue to be studied and for Mexico to learn from the experiences of other countries. Calderon made his proposal to debate legalizing drugs Aug. 3. He later clarified he did not favor legalization, but he was open to the debate. Mexico decriminalized the possession of small quantities of drugs in 2009 in an effort to focus enforcement activities on detaining drug dealers instead of drug users. Some political observers interpreted Calderon floating the legalization idea as a potential backup plan for dealing with an ever-growing wave of organized crime violence that has claimed 28,000 lives since he took office in December 2006...more