So The War On Drugs

[Shyam]

read a series of articles on Al Jazeera about the drug trafficking problem in places like Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras. For example, the yearly seizure of cocaine from Mexican Drug Cartels is $11.5 bn. Which is larger than the yearly Guatemalan budget. Also Mexican Drug cartels is about to spend a lot of money influencing politicans at the elections via contributions to serve their interests (a bit like Wall Street). Honduras have also become a hot spot.

It's been 5 years since the crackdown on the Mexican Drug cartels. I am just curious at this stage whether de criminalization can actually be considered a legitimate option. Remember, the biggest drug cash cow for the mexican Cartels still is by far Marijuana.

When the U.S. of A is suffering a large debt, and the latin American have nothing to show for their efforts except a brutalised country, may be the government should become the biggest drug cartel.

What do you guys think ?

 

[Robbo]

Based on my limited knowledge of what is happening in Mexico I assume that cartels are producing drugs to send into the US. The US has their war on drugs and Mexico is attempting a similar programme which has resulted in all the current violence. I think Mexico should legalise all these drugs and let the US sort it out at their end. You cant possibly argue that this would make Mexico worse off than it currently is and I don't think they should tear their country apart because the US doesn't like drugs.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Based on my limited knowledge of what is happening in Mexico I assume that cartels are producing drugs to send into the US. The US has their war on drugs and Mexico is attempting a similar programme which has resulted in all the current violence. I think Mexico should legalise all these drugs and let the US sort it out at their end. You cant possibly argue that this would make Mexico worse off than it currently is and I don't think they should tear their country apart because the US doesn't like drugs.

Mexico legalizing drugs would not do a single thing to eliminate the problem they have now. The US would have to legalize drugs in order for the cartels to be hit. The cartel's money comes from the US keeping drugs illegal. Prohibition just creates a black market, which we have now. If anyone in the current leadership had a brain they'd push legalization on our end to save our money on enforcement, incarceration, and reduce violence on both sides of the border.

Your idea is akin to Canada having legal booze during US prohibition- does nothing to stop the mob from smuggling nor fighting each other over smuggling routes. Only when the US ended prohibition did the mob take major financial losses and have to regroup back into their original business methods.

The real problem with Mexico's violence is the Zetas. There will always be cartel competition as long as the US keeps drugs illegal, thats just a fact. The issue is that the Zetas have taken everything into the realm of idiocy and non logical decisions. Random attacks on civillians and other random things. The old school cartels have always fought each other and had off and on truces for years. But they kept a relative calm and maintained a status quo, even when power shifted. If someone was killed, it was almost always a gangster, and maybe once in a blue moon a civillian caught in crossfire. The Zetas have began killing civillians on purpose in towns and on Mexican highways. Particularly South American immigrants on their way to the US through Mexico. Random rape and torture is rampant.

The other cartels recognize this and if you do a little research, you'll see some of them banding together (former arch enemies) as well as cooperating with the Mexican government in alliance against the Zetas. There is even rumor that the ATF's failed "Project Gunrunner" which sent thousands of US rifles to Mexican cartels under the knowing eye of the ATF was actually on purpose, in order to help boost arms of the Zetas rivals to counter them. I've read on some sites that the CIA supposedly allowed the Sinaloa cartel to fly in a 747 full of product into the US unmolested in exchange for their cooperation in armed attacks on Los Zetas routes and figureheads. That's very plausible, and is actually a decent move by our government. As bad as letting that product into the US is, it's far worse for the Zetas to take any sense of actual control of Mexican land/government. A fair trade off if it actually worked in my mind.

 

[The Monkey]

 

[Raziaar]

Based on my limited knowledge of what is happening in Mexico I assume that cartels are producing drugs to send into the US. The US has their war on drugs and Mexico is attempting a similar programme which has resulted in all the current violence. I think Mexico should legalise all these drugs and let the US sort it out at their end. You cant possibly argue that this would make Mexico worse off than it currently is and I don't think they should tear their country apart because the US doesn't like drugs.

Mexicans don't use all the drugs they produce... the United States does... and we need to legalize it. And I mean seriously, the most numerous drug by far coming through the border is Marijuana, the LEAST dangerous drug of all of them... and we can't legalize that?

Criminal violence is far more preferable to some people getting high on marijuana it seems, to many.