On 5 January 1940, Mexico's left-wing president, Lázaro Cárdenas, signed the new Federal Regulation of Drug Addiction into law. The new legislation was truly revolutionary: it swept away the old punitive edicts on drugs offences, authorised doctors to prescribe narcotics to addicts, established out-patient clinics to help these addicts, and made broader pleas to treat addicts as ill rather than as criminals

On 5 January 1940, Mexico's left-wing president, Lázaro Cárdenas, signed the new Federal Regulation of Drug Addiction into law. The new legislation was truly revolutionary: it swept away the old punitive edicts on drugs offences, authorised doctors to prescribe narcotics to addicts, established out-patient clinics to help these addicts, and made broader pleas to treat addicts as ill rather than as criminals