Mexico's Drug War - Page 27

On June 17 2011 06:46 Voltaire wrote:


Drug legalization. All of a sudden the cartels would have no way to make money.

On June 18 2011 03:06 RoosterSamurai wrote:

Marijuana is most likely a small portion of what these Mexican drug cartels deal with. They obviously have a hand in the heroin and cocaine businesses, too. I don't know why people always assume that marijuana is the only illegal drug in existence?

On June 18 2011 03:08 Alexl wrote:

legalize marijuana and suddenly everyone wants to legalize cocaine. Hmm yeah, not a good idea.

On June 18 2011 04:53 Brewed Tea wrote:
if you under cut them, you will still have to regulate them. And if they are regulated there will still be room for an illegal drug market, i mean there is for legal OTC drugs. So i don't know how much of a difference it would make.

On June 18 2011 04:45 Voltaire wrote:


40% of their income comes from marijuana. No one is assuming it is the only drug. Legalizing it alone wouldn't solve the problem but it would weaken the cartels. You said it yourself that corporations are there to make money, of course the price would drop from its ridiculously inflated point right now because corporations try to make money and as more corporations got involved they would keep undercutting each other. That is how capitalism works. If all illegal drugs were legalized this would happen on an even greater scale. As it currently is a kilo of heroin is sells for over $40,000. There is no way that price would remain that way if it was legalized and corporations could sell their product for 10,000 times the cost of production.



It's a great idea. If you actually had an argument as to why it is such a bad idea you'd have given it. This is the 21st century and the drug war should be a thing of the past, costing nothing but thousands of lives and billions of dollars while illegal drug use has risen since it began.

On June 18 2011 06:37 RoosterSamurai wrote:

Would you say it's safe to assume that if marijuana were legal (and more easily accessible) that more people would buy it? I think we can both agree on that. So, then, the cartels go into the marijuana selling business and have more money to spend on their other operations. You can't just legalize marijuana or else their market grows.

Marijuana is most likely a small portion of what these Mexican drug cartels deal with. They obviously have a hand in the heroin and cocaine businesses, too. I don't know why people always assume that marijuana is the only illegal drug in existence?

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Dwarfed by surrounding reporters and with her head bowed to avoid the television cameras, the slender 16-year-old hesitated slightly before she answered the question. "I'm a hitwoman," she said.

Maria Celeste Mendoza was among six teenage suspected gang members arrested this week by police after a shoot-out with authorities in central Mexico, one of the growing ranks of young people working for the country's drug cartels.

Dressed in combat fatigues and with her face hidden, the girl from the northern border state of Tamaulipas described how she had been trained to use Kalashnikov assault rifles and other weapons by the Zetas, one of Mexico's most brutal gangs.

In a listless drawl, Mendoza said she was paid 12,000 pesos ($1,000) for two weeks' work, more than three times the national average. Although she said she was trained as a hitwoman, it was unclear if she had killed anyone yet.

As is customary in Mexico, she and the other suspects, six of whom were women aged 21 or below, were paraded in front of the media by police after their capture in San Cristobal de la Barranca, near the country's second city, Guadalajara.

On June 20 2011 06:49 Spacely wrote:
If Mexico would just invest in itself and create nicer places to live with better job opportunities then all these people wouldn't have to join Cartels to put food on the table.

On June 18 2011 04:45 Voltaire wrote:
40% of their income comes from marijuana.

On June 20 2011 07:01 FallDownMarigold wrote:
Things that need to be cleared in this thread:

1) 60% of cartel revenue = marijuana sales; fact.
2) ~$2 billion in revenue comes from marijuana exports to the US (15-26% of total revenue)

Drug legalization in the US would have a very small effect on cartel revenue - fact. Rand analysis reveals that only ~20% of cartel profits consist of marijuana sales to the US, and CA is only one of many states. Were CA to pass prop 19, it would likely only affect about 2-4% of cartel revenue.


Points here indicate that US-CA marijuana legalization is not the primary concern with regard to quelling drug cartel operations in MX.



Patently false. The correct statistic is 60%.

On June 20 2011 06:48 Gamegene wrote:
I'm opposed to Marijuana legalization primarily for moral reasons (it reminds me so much of soma from brave new world... don't attack me for that).

I think a better way for the US to hurt the drug cartels is restricting weapon sales because the majority of arms used by the cartels is brought over across the border.

On June 20 2011 10:05 Voltaire wrote:
Your definition of "moral reasons" is that it reminds you of a fictional character? Great logic.

Your definition of "moral reasons" is that it reminds you of a fictional character? Great logic.

Global drug legalization of all illegal substances is what I am talking about. It is much more than just legalizing cannabis in CA.

At least 22 people have been killed in a string of weekend attacks in Mexico, including a shooting at a bar in Monterrey, the country's third largest city, just hours after the nearby opening of football's Under-17 World Cup.

Four people, aged 18 to 25 years old, were killed on Sunday in Guadalupe, a city adjacent to Monterrey.

"The victims were gathering in front of one of their homes when armed men showed up in several vehicles and shot them," an official said.

Another 14 people were killed in the western state of Michoacan, whose bodies were found early on Sunday, authorities said, also blaming drug cartel-related violence there.

Gunmen stormed a bar in Monterrey late on Saturday and "executed three people," wounded another, and kidnapped a bar security guard who was later found dead, an official of Nuevo Leon state's investigation agency told the AFP news agency.

The relatively prosperous industrial hub of northern Mexico, home to Monterrey and Guadalupe, was until recently considered a near-safe haven as violence has increased in many parts of the country.

But a bloody turf war between two drug cartels, the Gulf cartel and its former hitmen the Zetas, has spilled into the state over the past two years, leading to daytime shootouts, grenade attacks and a widespread climate of fear.

Thirty-three violent killings were recorded in and around Monterrey, an area of some four million, on Wednesday, making it the area's most violent day in recent history.

On June 20 2011 13:00 Gamegene wrote:

I see you haven't passed sophmore english yet.


...Seriously? All illegal substances? Even the most addictive and dangerous? ...There is no arguing with you. That's just ridiculous.

On June 20 2011 19:22 Voltaire wrote:


I'm the ridiculous one? You criticize my grammar and make a spelling mistake in the same sentence and then go on to claim there is no arguing with me while hardly bringing up any argument yourself and I am the one being ridiculous?

If you haven't realized it yet there is a war going on in Mexico. This violence that has shown no signs of ceasing or lessening any time soon is far worse than any consequences that would be brought about because of legalization. Plenty of people are quick to call that idea "absurd" but no one has been able to provide a solid argument against it yet.