Wise Old Mexico (Charles Dews)

Charles Dews -- World News Trust

Aug. 24, 2009 -- Well, whaddaya know, gringos? Mexico, poor backward Mexico, my chosen home and hearth of my heart, has legalized, for all practical purposes, the possession of small amounts of pot, coke, heroin, meth, LSD, and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.

President Calderón, our homegrown but Harvard educated answer to GWB, signed the bill into law, finally, after months of dithering, probably waiting to see how his opposite numbers in the US would react. The nation´s congress passed the bill months ago, and the law has actually been in effect since then. Unlike before, when the cops and their cohorts the lawyers used the finding of drugs, no matter what amount, as an opportunity to extort large sums of money from unwary visitors and cowed locals, now anyone caught with drug amounts under the personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory—although no penalties for noncompliance are specified.

Mind you, the amounts are incredibly dinky—the amount of pot you can be carrying when caught is equivalent más o menos to four joints—hardly an evening´s entertainment, from what I am told. Not that drugs are especially popular here. They have been given a bad rap by the US so-called War on Drugs, the always thoughtful Catholic Church, and the other rightwing nut cases who are now in charge of the nation´s morals. Still, this is where pot used to originate—remember: “Hey, man, I got some really cool Mishmacan weed!” Or, “Oh, wow, this stuff is Acapulco Gold.” Maybe you have to be a certain age. And a certain tribe of folks hereabouts still like to toke it once in a while. Especially the city folk known as “heepies” and the indigenous people, of which there are aplenty in my state. Some even think good pot can drum up a positive religious experience. I wouldn´t know, personally, but I trust their judgment.

Only problem is, here in Michoacán, we have a particularly nasty bunch of drug handlers, let us say, who are battling for turf with another bunch of equally nasty handlers. Our local boys call themselves La Familia, or the Family, and to give them their due, they seem to have a pretty high standard of honor among thieves, at least among siblings. If any familiar or family member rapes a woman, say, or abuses a kid, or steals product, or gets out of line in any way, he may likely be found missing his cabeza. Not a few folks here have found themselves missing that very important section of their anatomy. Nine of the severed parts were summarily rolled onto the dance floor in a popular bar not too long ago in one of our larger towns as a warning not to mess with La Familia. Startled a crowd of country boys and girls doing the two-step and sipping tequilita in the middle of the afternoon. A handwritten note was attached to one of the cabezas that said, “We don´t mess with innocent people, but if you piss us off….”

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/commentary/3599-wise-old-mexico-charles-dews

in a certain amount of social work in the areas they control in an attempt to get ordinary folks on their side.

It's working.

The author of this piece was also correct about its being about time for another revolution. I really thought it was going to start last year with the massive unrest around Oaxaca, but it didn't spread.

Perhaps the pressure of millions of returning campesinos whose jobs in the US have dried up will allow the next one to succeed as much as they ever do, with improvements for a few years and then the inexorable creep back to oligarchy.