Thread: Mexico and the Drug Wars

This link was pointed out to me and I found it very interesting and educational. So I thought I would post it here for your perusal:


Mexico and the Failed State Revisited | STRATFOR

Personally I vote for legalize drugs.

But if we are going to give amnesty to all these illegal Mexican citizens in this country the other option would be to make all Mexicans citizens of the US by rather than just attacking the cartels just taking over the country lock stock and barrel. Of course they tell me that imperialism has gone out of fashion so we probably won't do anything at all. We will just sit and stew and wring our hands like whiney little children.

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

I believe that neither the Mexican government nor the U.S. government would like to see a day when when the "drug war" ceased to exist. Both feed off of it like a coke laden teat and use the "fight" as a funding stream all the while putting on a charade of an anti-drug position. The U.S. government doesn't really want to win the "war on drugs" any more than drug users want their supply to go away.

No one could convince me otherwise.

Chris L

Originally Posted by ChrisL

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

I believe that neither the Mexican government nor the U.S. government would like to see a day when when the "drug war" ceased to exist. Both feed off of it like a coke laden teat all the while putting on a charade of an anti-drug position. The U.S. government doesn't really want to win the "war on drugs" any more than drug users want their supply to go away.

No one could convince me otherwise.

Chris L

Y'know, I smoked that wacky tabacky for 20 + years and I quit over 25 years ago and haven't touched it since. I think they should legalize it and if they did I wouldn't go near it. If they legalized it they would put a hell of a dent in the profits of the drug cartels and they could tax it as they do alcohol and tobacco. The revenue gleaned would be astronomical. They could focus the drug enforcement on the harder stuff and that is as it should be IMO.

But what you say Chris is true. An example is the taxes they are putting on tobacco in the guise of influencing people to give it up. In reality it is a cash cow, mostly on the backs of the poor and lower middle class.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

But what you say Chris is true. An example is the taxes they are putting on tobacco in the guise of influencing people to give it up. In reality it is a cash cow, mostly on the backs of the poor and lower middle class.

If they wanted people to quit, they'd hike the taxes 300% in one go instead of gradually increasing it with small amounts.

You can't enforce really unpopular laws. Remember prohibition in this country? If they made it legal and controlled its sale the worlds drug problems would disappear overnight.

Think of all the lost revenue that the legal system would lose in legal fees, fines and etc, there are some great careers made in front as well as behind the bench. The more things that become illegal, the greater the system becomes, in time we will all be criminals, it will just be a matter of convenience as to when you get hauled into court and properly fleeced.

Originally Posted by Bruno

If they wanted people to quit, they'd hike the taxes 300% in one go instead of gradually increasing it with small amounts.

If they did that the nicotine addicts may quit, but then again how many would find another way to satisfy the addiction. If the government wanted to help people quit they would be using the tax money for cessation programs.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You can't enforce really unpopular laws. Remember prohibition in this country? If they made it legal and controlled its sale the worlds drug problems would disappear overnight.

Ah, my friend, the drug problems would disappear, but I think the funding for the drug war, the massive amounts of cash pumped toward that activity along with the bloated legal system benefiting as Kelly pointed out would dwarf any amount the U.S. government would take in if drugs were legal and taxed.

IMO the government won't legalize drugs, not because they couldn't handle it, implement it, tax it, etc. And, not because the government would be morally opposed to it (now THAT'S a laugh!!!). It all comes down to MONEY. Stop drugs? Heck no. Keep em commin in is the behind the scenes motto.

Chris L

Thanks for posting this, Matt. It's orders of magnitude more intelligent and balanced than 99.999% of what we hear from our politicians and press, at least here in the U.S. And it's rare to get such a nuanced and reasoned analysis of the Mexican point of view.

As it happens, the Chicago Tribune's Steve Chapman, no flaming radical, recently published an editorial proposing what I've long believed to be the only sane thing for the U.S. to do (and hence, of course, the one thing that will never be done) about this problem:

An unconventional cure for Mexico's drug violence

~Rich