Fox backs down from drug legalization bill

Woo hoo for the status quo... A border town breaths a sigh of relief.

Actually, President Vicente Fox will not sign it in with its current language, which would have legalized many drugs for everyone. Instead, the bill has been sent back for revisions, after which he hopes to sign into law. The original intent of the bill, before some wording was changed to legalize drugs for all consumers, was to make drugs legal for addicts (who we can only hope are in rehabilitation).

The bill also closes some loopholes that traffickers have been using to avoid prison and gives local law enforcement agencies more power to arrest drug dealers.

When I lived in Mexico a couple of years ago, I can tell you that drugs have become a big problem. Many traffickers have responded to difficulties crossing the US border by pushing drugs in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. The drug problem has no simple solutions, but it seems that action against the supply side of the equation is not working very well. What about demand? What factors lead to addiction and how can governments best deal with that particular part of the equation?