The Merlin Foundation

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Location: Green Forest, Arkansas, United States

We are a non-profit organization located in Green Forest, Arkansas serving women, children and families. To view our programs or to contact us please go to our website merlinfoundation.com.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Reverse Immigration

The news is rich these days with the illegal and legal immigration issue. Seems like everyone has an opinion, but no one has a solution.

Well think again. On Friday April 28, 2006 the Congress of Mexico passed a landmark bill with a vote of 53-26 (one abstention) that allows for the possession of illegal drugs for personal use. These drugs include, Cocaine, LSD, Heroin, Marijuana, MDA, Ecstasy, Amphetamines and a few others.

President Vicente Fox’s chief spokesperson stated the President will sign the Bill into law.

The law allows possession of up to 25 milligrams of heroin; 5 grams of Marijuana (about four joints); a half gram of Cocaine, enough for several lines; and different levels for other drugs including a kilogram, about 2.2 pounds of peyote.

As an additional incentive remember the legal age to drink alcohol in Mexico is 18 and that is rarely enforced.

Think about this for a minute. We have a flood of illegal and legal immigrants arriving from Mexico every year. In my experience these people come here to work, make a better life for themselves and in many cases send money back home to help support their families. All in all not a bad bunch of folks just trying to carve out a piece of the American dream.

My experience in Domestic Violence, Rape and Child Abuse has included thousands of cases where the perpetrator is a drug user or alcoholic. Friends in law enforcement tell me that drug users commit most crimes from theft to homicide. A major portion of their workload.

So here is how it can work. We can make an exchange. We’ll send Mexico all our addicted drug users and alcoholics and we will take all of their people who want to contribute to our economy. That would, of course, be via an improved legal immigration process. We do not support any illegal activity. Our prison populations will decrease and our Gross Domestic Product will increase. The workload on law enforcement will decrease and our safety will increase.

Doesn’t sound like a bad solution to me. Here the American Congress and President Bush have been at it over a month now without a workable solution. They have created one of the most divisive issues since the pro-life…pro-choice debate.

Now if President Bush, who is very unhappy about this new Mexican Legislation, will just leave it alone we may have a solution. At the very least not a bad trade. Remember NAFTA.