PRESENTACIÓN
EL DR. LEOPOLDO SALAZAR VINIEGRA
Aunque sea difícil de imaginar, en 1939 durante la sesión del Comité Consultivo del Opio en Ginebra, las ideas de la comitiva mexicana escandalizaron a Estados Unidos. Presentaron un nuevo Reglamento Federal de Toxicomanías, que ponía sobre la mesa la legalización de las drogas, la despenalización de la marihuana y tachaban de ineficientes las iniciativas prohibicionistas promovidas, más bien impuestas, por el gobierno de Estados Unidos.
Estas “peligrosas ideas”, como las etiquetaron los estadounidenses, fueron gestadas por el Dr. Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, mi abuelo.

Tenía una postura diferente ante el problema de las toxicomanías, y aseguraba que generar un monopolio estatal del mercado de las drogas, era el único camino para dar un golpe certero al creciente problema del narcotráfico. La idea era garantizar al toxicómano, el acceso, la calidad, y el precio de la la sustancia requerida, dosificada por doctores expertos.
Convencidos de sus ideas, también expusieron los resultados publicados en “El Mito de la Marihuana”, estudio científico que planteaba falso que esta planta estuviera relacionada a episodios de criminalidad o locura.
Estados Unidos y Canadá se lanzaron furiosos contra estos planteamientos pero antes de iniciar un verdadero debate, las sesiones del comité se vieron interrumpidas por el inicio de la Segunda guerra Mundial.
Por este tipo de episodios al Dr. Salazar se le conoce hoy como una especie de “Gurú en la legalización de las drogas en México”, pues sus ideas hicieron eco en un primer intento por legalizar las drogas en México en 1940, cuando el presidente Lázaro Cárdenas implementó este nuevo reglamento que solo duró unos meses al ser saboteado por el gobierno de Estados Unidos.

La importancia que el tema del narcotráfico ha cobrado en la actualidad, ha resucitado las ideas del Dr. Salazar, quizás una pieza clave en la historia de México en relación a la legalización de las drogas pero también de la psiquiatría y la pedagogía.
Como doctor y director de La Castañeda, dedicó más de 20 años a tratar de mejorar las condiciones en las que vivían los internos del manicomio General de la Ciudad de México, desde mediados de los 20s hasta finales de los 40s, sus proyectos se vieron enfocados en estudiar y entender a los grupos más segregados por la sociedad.
Este proyecto inicia así con un puente que va 80 años atrás, con las ideas de un doctor que escandalizaban a la sociedad y a los gobiernos internacionales, con las historias familiares de La Castañeda a través de los ojos de un par de niños, y con un archivo viejo que mi abuelo elaboró, y que esperaba ser releído en otro tiempo, en el que sus ideas fueran comprendidas, tal vez ese tiempo es hoy.
PRESENTATION
DR. LEOPOLDO SALAZAR VINIEGRA
Although difficult to imagine, in 1939, during the session of the Opium Advisory Committee in Geneva, the ideas of the Mexican retinue shocked the United States. They presented a new federal regulation of drug addiction that put cards on the table about drug legalization, depenalization of mariguana, and branded as inefficient the prohibicionist initiatives promoted, or rather imposed, by the American Government.
These dangerous ideas, as the United States labeled them, were brewed by Dr. Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, my grandfather.
He had a very radical posture facing the problem of drug addiction. He claimed that generating state monopolies on the drug market was the only way to give a well-aimed blow to the growing problem on drug traffic.
The idea was to guarantee the drug user: the access, the quality, and the price of the required substance, to be dosed by expert MDs.
Convinced by his ideas, they also exposed the published results of “The Marihuana Myth”, a scientific study that considered false that this plant was related to episodes of criminality or madness.
The United States and Canada launched furiously against these proposals, but before initiating a true debate, the committee sessions were interrupted by the beginning of the Second World War.
For these famous episodes Dr Salazar is now known as a “Drug Legalization Guru” in Mexico, and his ideas were used in a first attempt to legalize drugs in 1940´s Mexico when President Lazaro Cardenas implemented a regulation that lasted only a few months before it was sabotaged by the US Government.
The importance of Drug Trafficking today has resuscitated Dr. Salazar´s ideas and maybe a key piece of Mexican history regarding drug legalization, psychiatry, and pedagogy.
As a MD and director of “La Castañeda”, he dedicated over 20 years trying to improve the conditions in which residents of Mexico´s City General Mental Hospital, from the 1920´s until the 1940´s, his projects were focused on studying and understanding the groups most segregated by society.
This Project started as a link that goes back 80 years, with the ideas of an MD that scandalized society and mostly international governments, with the familiar stories of “La Castañeda” through the eyes of two kids (my unkle and my mother) and with an old archive that my grandfather developed and stored, which he expected to be read in another era, were his ideas could be comprehended, maybe that time is today.
For these famous episodes Dr Salazar is now known as a “Drug Legalization Guru” in Mexico, and his ideas were used in a first attempt to legalize drugs in 1940´s Mexico when President Lazaro Cardenas implemented a regulation that lasted only a few months before it was sabotaged by the US Government.
The importance of Drug Trafficking today has resuscitated Dr. Salazar´s ideas and maybe a key piece of Mexican history regarding drug legalization, psychiatry, and pedagogy.
As a MD and director of “La Castañeda”, he dedicated over 20 years trying to improve the conditions in which residents of Mexico´s City General Mental Hospital, from the 1920´s until the 1940´s, his projects were focused on studying and understanding the groups most segregated by society.
This Project started as a link that goes back 80 years, with the ideas of an MD that scandalized society and mostly international governments, with the familiar stories of “La Castañeda” through the eyes of two kids (my unkle and my mother) and with an old archive that my grandfather developed and stored, which he expected to be read in another era, were his ideas could be comprehended, maybe that time is today.


Derechos Reservados Archivo Dr. Salazar — Ciudad de México, 2018
