Newly elected Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto recently told CNN that while he is opposed to legalized marijuana for his own country, the recent landmark legalization of recreational pot in Colorado and Washington, “could bring us to rethinking the strategy.”
President Nieto’s admission is significant for a nation that is not only a large producer of exported marijuana but is also one plagued with horrific drug violence – at least 55,000 people have been killed in Mexico in just the last six years by drug cartels and law enforcement due to outdated prohibition policies and laws.
According to reportage by the L.A. Times, pot legalization is already being considered and promoted by prominent Mexican elected officials, such as Mexican Congress legislator Fernando Belaunzaran (Democratic Revolution Party), who introduced a national legalization bill.
It’s estimated that pot profits generate up to 25 percent of the ruthless cartels’ earnings and Belaunzaran wants to cut into that blood-tainted revenue. The governor of the Mexican state of Colima, Mario Anguiano Moreno, suggested Colima should enact a legalization referendum, and even prior to the passage of the historic ballot measures in Colorado and Washington, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera proposed organizing a national forum for pot legalization.
Of course not everyone’s on board with cannabis legalization. Particularly egregious was an editorial in the Mexican newspaper Reforma in which columnist Sergio Aguayo termed the U.S. pot legalization movement a “slap in the face” of former Mexican President and staunch drug-war advocate Felipe Calderon – as if the overdue necessity of cannabis legalization should be bypassed to somehow justify the legacy of Calderon’s short-sighted administration. Despite such rhetoric, it seems the tide may be finally turning in Mexico just as it is happening to its neighbor up north.
Anything can be a problem, legalization of pakalolo would be ok, perhaps then we could grow and utilize hemp, right now its outawed in the US, sorta stupid if you ask me, would be an excellent crop in rotations in a sustainable model for both large and small farms, has promise for use of the fiber, as well as in production of biofuel or use as biomass, TPTB are controlled by oil and pharmaceutical companies so the legalization of hemp an cannabis are a threat. What a waste of a good renewable multi use resource, shows how narrow minded the people in the capitol are.
Legalize all drugs in Mexico and the United States and render the criminal drug cartels irrelevant. No more violence, no more drug war. It all just goes away overnight.
Yep Antony, I agree with you on that one. If people want drugs people will get drugs one way or another. Legalize them all and take the profit away from the dope dealers!!. Many people do drugs just because drugs are illegal and they feel like they are just getting away with something and if they were legalized then that alone would maybe cause people to not do drugs.
Unfortunately, that will never happen, as the so-called ‘govt.’ is the largest supplier of illegal drugs in this country.
Not only would they lose the massive profits from the sales, they would also lose all the profits from incarcerating the users.
GOOD! Then they can smuggle AR mags inside the bales!