Mexico looks to legalisation as drug war murders hit 28,000

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Mexico looks to legalisation as drug war murders hit 28,000
President joins calls for debate after figures reveal extent of violence since launch of military offensive against cartels in 2006
Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 August 2010 20.13 BST

Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón, has joined calls for a debate on the legalisation of drugs as new figures show thousands of Mexicans every year being slaughtered in cartel wars.

"It is a fundamental debate," the president said, belying his traditional reluctance to accept any questioning of the military-focused offensive against the country's drug cartels that he launched in late 2006. "You have to analyse carefully the pros and cons and key arguments on both sides." The president said he personally opposes the idea of legalisation.

Calderón's new openness comes amid tremendous pressure to justify a strategy that has been accompanied by the spiralling of horrific violence around the country as the cartels fight each other and the government crack down. Official figures released this week put the number of drug war related murders at 28,000.

Until recently the government regularly played down the general impact of the violence by claiming that 90% of the victims were associated with the cartels, with the remainder largely from the security forces. In recent months it has started to acknowledge a growing number of "civilian victims" ranging from toddlers caught in the cross fire to students massacred at parties.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/04/mexico-legalisation-debate-drug-war
 
Nice to see Calderon is at least accepting that legalisation might be the right way to go for Mexico. As the article says, 28,000 deaths is a huge number, and it seems to me very likely that whatever the negatives of legalisation, they probably won't be as costly as the negatives that allowing drug wars and the War On Drugs to continue bring.
 
Nice, but we(the US) won't let it happen.


Oh, and I guess all hell didn't break loose when they decriminalized.
 
even if they did legalize in mexico the bulk of the cartel's money if coming from the US where drugs would still be illegal and just as lucrative. legalization in mexico without legalization in the US would only result in more competiton for the drug cartels because now anyone in mexico could sell drugs to people in the US.
 
So how many murders were there before this asshole cracked down on the cartels? Im sure it was a decent number but not even remotely close to 28000 thats for sure. You either let the cartels do whatever the fuck they want because atleast it will be done peacfully, or you legalize drugs and take away the profitability. You don't fucking send troops all over the place to fight an internal (drug) war that leads to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

Like how fucking hard is this its not like its relativistic quantum field theory...
 
I am leaning toward mexico as having to legalize, the government seems to have basically lost (I bet it would be easier for El Chapo to take out Calderon than the other way around). The government enforcement wing, the security services, are becoming increasing corrupt (and I can show ya studies that show counter-narcotics always leads to the corruption of the executing agencies).

I am thinking the cartels are going to take over certain government services (think Pablo Escobar and the Medellín community). Offering jobs, security, and infrastructure investment, what else is there? Especially when this new "government" will draw revenue from drug smuggling and not taxing the local people.

Interesting, the drug revenue will, I think, keep cartels alive so long as the US keeps drugs illegal. The position of Mexico will be less important.
 
caseface99 said:
So how many murders were there before this asshole cracked down on the cartels? Im sure it was a decent number but not even remotely close to 28000 thats for sure. You either let the cartels do whatever the fuck they want because atleast it will be done peacfully, or you legalize drugs and take away the profitability. You don't fucking send troops all over the place to fight an internal (drug) war that leads to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

Like how fucking hard is this its not like its relativistic quantum field theory...
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Not hard at all. It is classic capitalism: the drug war is more lucrative than the drug-trade itself, therefore it remains the status-quo.
 
slimvictor said:
It only took 28,000 murders (plus who knows how many kidnappings and other violent crime) for them to call a debate about it?
Wow, that's fast. :\
Good thing their government is protecting their people so well.:|
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I knw dude it makes me so angry, that president deserves to choke to death on shit
 
There might be less violence but I don't think legalisation would allow many people to run their own drug operations.

Instead of the government shutting down drug operations, other cartels would just shut it down with violence.

Legalisation would need to happen in the US as well to stop the flow of money and power to the cartels.
 
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In some border cities drugs are already legalized (i.e. TJ). My understanding is that in certain districts that place is like the wild west. The drugs are being taxed as well (although not in the conventional sense). As the quote from Traffick "...down there law enforcement is an entrepreneurial enterprise." or something like that.
 
I believe the staggering amount of deaths was due to a drug war, and before the war could end between the two cartels the military stepped in. This only complicated matters more.

Juarez is the wild west compared to the safe and serene El Paso right across the Rio Grande. In the first three days of august in 2009 there were 28 murders. When narco's and police forces fight, the injured police must be taken to a hospital that gets locked down. The narco's are known for breaking into hospitals to finish the job.

This war cannot be won. The US is throwing too much money at these gangsters for it to stop. I'm guessing that if Mexico somehow legalized drugs, the violence would finally start to spill over. And there is no fucking way the US is letting that shit happen.
 
matt2012 said:
even if they did legalize in mexico the bulk of the cartel's money if coming from the US where drugs would still be illegal and just as lucrative. legalization in mexico without legalization in the US would only result in more competiton for the drug cartels because now anyone in mexico could sell drugs to people in the US.
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they'd have nearly no violence on their side of the border, though. it'd be on us, as it should be, as the high demand and high prices is here

there'd be middle men on their side of the border to get it illegally to our side, but illegal production and most of the movement would no longer be a concern

if we change the environment to one that's more economically friendly to companies producing drugs rather than cartels, the shift will happen over some time but will happen
Oh, and I guess all hell didn't break loose when they decriminalized
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i really love how they snuck that in when we had a lot of crap on our plate to deal with
 
I understand that Mexico legalizing will not shut down the cartels completely, but it would do wonders for the legalization movement in the rest of the world.
 
Exactly they will still make shit loads of money as the us is where all the cash comes from but it would save alot of lives in mexico and make the goverment a lot of money 2
 
Didn't Mexico plan on doing this a few years back but The US government stuck their noses in it? I also don't this will stop the carnageif the US doesn't join the movement since a majority of the drugs flow to the US. Alot of the violence is between rival cartels and inocent people get caught in the crossfire.
 
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