Sánchez Cordero: “AMLO will consult the UN for drug decriminalization”

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Olga Sánchez Cordero , appointed by President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador to become Secretary of Interior , stated that the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) would soon be looking to propose an “interpretative frame” to the United Nations (UN) for the decriminialization of controlled drugs in Mexico. The proposal is aimed towards the implementation of AMLO’s Amnesty Law .

“We have also thought to convene an international conference to discuss the decriminalization as well as our fight against organized crime,” she stated in presence of businessmen who attended the 2018 Banorte Forum , as part of her lecture on “ The Rule of Law .”

At the conclusion of her presentation, Sánchez Cordero told that she would initiate interactions with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico , seeking to establish a common approach for the easing of the current anti-drug policy.

Sánchez Cordero indicated that the policy which had been implemented in the 1970s was “a very rigid one,” and had to be made flexible through the reinterpretation of the punitive approach that characterized it. She stressed that her party would promote the decriminalization of marijuana use and, at a later stage, of opium poppy for medicinal use .

“We will talk with the United Nations to ease our current agreement -signed in the 70s- regarding drug criminalization and the war on drug cartels. Decriminalization does not equal legalization ,” she explained in an interview.

During her presentation, she had claimed that organized crime in Mexico laundered money for over 25,000 million dollars in Mexico and 250,000 million dollars in the United States . She warned that, should the new policy on drugs be consolidated, it could pave the way for López Obrador’s Amnesty Law to offer a solution to drug violence.

She added that a clear diagnose was needed to move forward in the pacification of the country. She emphasized that the initial goal of the upcoming administration was a new strategy that focused on security and peace.

“If we can transform the current policy on drugs, for example, and implement a different strategy, we could contribute to a solution with the Amnesty Law.”