Today we want to open the discussion about whether legalising the drug should be considered as a means to starve traffickers and dealers of funds and focus the attention of the authorities on the sale and distribution of other more serious substances. The situation as it stands today is that 38,000 people in Mexico are dead after an almost 5 year fight against drug traffickers.
It is a moot point in Mexico whether the fight against "narcotraficantes" should continue.
Many within Mexico believe that they shouldn't have to take the bloodshed because the consumption of the drugs is done abroad. It's a view that has traction seeing that until 5 years ago the Mexican government virtually ignored trafficking - allowing the cartels to grow strong and establish a largely working peace where territories were clearly marked out and agreed on.
A situation that dissolved once the army was sent to fight against the cartels - some of which were 70 years old - creating disorder about where and how they could operate and also creating the now very familiar bloody fights for territory.
Others believe that the government (which a lot of people see as corrupt and ineffective) should fight harder against the traffickers and that they should be entirely stamped out so that Mexico's reputation can be restored and its government can focus its energy on more endemic problems like poverty.
Others still are just sick of the constant cycle of death and violence that is reported daily in grisly pictures in the country's newspapers.
The point is that somehow this has to stop.
The second point is while cocaine might be newsworthy, experts have estimated that the majority of the cartels' revenue comes from marijuana.
NPR explains that "in part [it is] because the Mexican gangs control the production, trafficking and distribution of the drug. The cocaine they move has a higher street value, but they initially have to buy it from the Colombians."
So if Mexico "sends almost all of its crops to the U.S" and if the drug makes more revenue funding the cartels, wouldn't it be prudent for the Mexican government to make some money off it and pressure the U.S to stop consumption?
What do you think of the idea of marijuana legalisation as a way to take power away from Mexico's cartels? Should the problem be pushed on to the United States who consumes the drugs? Tell us and remember....Disqus!