---
title: "Mexico Wants the United States to Decriminalize All Drugs"
description: "Mexico's new president has a plan to decriminalize all illegal drugs — and he's hopeful the United States will follow his lead."
date: "2019-05-10"
modified: "2019-05-10"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/mexico-wants-us-decriminalize-drugs"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "drugs"
  - "mexico"
  - "the digest"
  - "war on drugs"
---

# Mexico Wants the United States to Decriminalize All Drugs

![Mexico's new president has a plan to decriminalize all illegal drugs — and he's hopeful the United States will follow his lead.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/mexico-wants-us-decriminalize-drugs.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## The More on Drugs

Mexico's new president has a plan to decriminalize all drugs — and he's hopeful the U.S. will follow his lead.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's recently released [National Development Plan](<https://lopezobrador.org.mx/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/PLAN-NACIONAL-DE-DESARROLLO-2019-2024.pdf>) for 2019-2024 asserts that the international "war on drugs" has failed. In light of that, he believes it's time for Mexico and other nations to lift bans on illegal drugs. It's a bold plan that could signal a new era in drug legislation — or invite international ridicule.

## Treat, Don't Punish

The new plan suggests redirecting any money currently spent on policing illegal drugs toward programs to help users get clean and rejoin society — a position that's already being lauded by many drug reform advocates, including Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

"Mexico’s president is rightly identifying one of the major drivers of violence and corruption in his country: the prohibition of drugs," she [told *Newsweek*](<https://www.newsweek.com/mexico-decriminalize-drugs-negotiate-us-1421395>). "The next step is to translate words into action, by pursuing both a domestic and international agenda of drug policy reform, grounded in respect for human rights."

## Shifting Tide

Some of that reform is already happening north of the Mexican border.

States are [legalizing cannabis](<https://futurism.com/ways-cannabis-legalization-future-better>) — not just for medical purposes, but recreational ones as well — and just this week, Denver residents voted to [decriminalize psilocybin](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/denver-decriminalize-magic-mushrooms>), the trip-inducing compound found in "magic mushrooms."

Still, at the federal level, the U.S. still seems largely committed to prohibition — and it might take more than the words of a new Mexican president to change that.

**READ MORE:** [MEXICO WANTS TO DECRIMINALIZE ALL DRUGS AND NEGOTIATE WITH THE U.S. TO DO THE SAME](<https://www.newsweek.com/mexico-decriminalize-drugs-negotiate-us-1421395>) \[*Newsweek*\]

**More on drugs:** *[Denver Becomes First u.s. City to Decriminalize "Magic Mushrooms"](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/denver-decriminalize-magic-mushrooms>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)