Mexico oversteps the line with its relaxed drug policy.The morning my friend Vinnie died was a cool, clear spring day in Boston, where I was working as a deckhand on a ship in the Harbor. Vinnie, a fellow deckhand, had never been late to work. Ever since we met, he had lived in a halfway house for people recovering from drug addiction. Vinnie was a survivor. He had sailed around the world as a merchant marine, and I dreamt of distant shores through his stories.But I knew something was wrong that morning. Another concerned deckhand and I drove to his apartment in Roxbury to see if he had overslept. We broke in through a window and found Vinnie dead, in his underwear, curled up on a bare mattress. He had overdosed on heroin late the night before.My memory will be scarred forever from watching the paramedics carry his stiff, twisted body to the ambulance.Mexico passed a new law Aug. 21, which allows the possession of 5 grams of marijuana, a half-gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams of methamphetamines or 0.015 milligrams of LSD.Contrary to some criticism, this is not a legalization of drugs. It is an effort to focus law enforcement resources on drug dealers, reduce corruption and revise the strategy used to combat drug abuse.”It is a public health problem, not a penal problem,” said Rafael Ruiz Mena, secretary general of the National Institute of Penal Sciences, to the Los Angeles Times about drug abuse and addiction.This new law will also reduce police corruption. “The bad thing was that it was left up to the discretion of the detective, and it could open the door to corruption or extortion,” said Bernardo       Espino del Castillo of the Mexican attorney general’s office to the Associated Press.I understand this rationale and agree with the decriminalization of marijuana. But cocaine, heroin, meth and LSD are harmful to people beyond the user.”[T]he only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant,” philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote in his book “On Liberty.”Though Mexico’s new law is a step in the right direction, it is a step too far — cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines do harm others.A more reasonable medium between Mexico’s irresponsibility and the U.S.’s overbearing interference exists. The Argentine Supreme Court recently passed a law permitting personal possession and use of marijuana. This decision was based on the grounds it was unconstitutional to prosecute a person who, without harming anyone, uses marijuana in private.”The state cannot establish morality,” Argentine Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzettitold the BBC.On these grounds, I applaud Argentina for standing up for personal liberty, while keeping a lid on drugs that are truly harmful. As our own actions in the U.S. become increasingly controlled and monitored by the government, Argentina has stepped forward in protection of basic constitutional rights.I don’t personally agree with the use of marijuana, but my views should not interfere with the private actions of other people.However, I’m personally angered by the number of lives destroyed by cocaine, heroin and meth. These drugs aren’t harmless — just as it is a proven fact alcohol is destructive. There should be the option to arrest people in possession of drugs that have a real possibility of harming people who come into contact with the user. Behavior that harms others is not a liberty that should be protected.Had my friend Vinnie been arrested for possession of heroin on that night so many years ago, he might still be alive today.  Nathan Shull is a 35-year-old finance junior from Seattle.  Follow him on Twitter @TDR_nshull.—-Contact Nathan Shull at [email protected]