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I don't know how popular that would be with Mexican voters, even if it drastically reduced the money flowing to cartels. Probably more important than domestic
by philipkglass 9y ago
I don't know how popular that would be with Mexican voters, even if it drastically reduced the money flowing to cartels.
Probably more important than domestic sentiment is the inevitable retaliation that would follow from the United States government if Mexico just legalized all drugs. I wouldn't be surprised if the US government cut off trade with Mexico and started running overt and covert operations to ensure Mexican prohibitionist politicians take power again. In the worst case the US government might even deploy armed forces across the border, to ensure that American law is enforced in Mexico, like it did with Panama in 1989.
- yazaddaruvala 9y agoCanada legalized marijuana, the US did not react. Mexico could legalize marijuana with little US recourse. Heroin and Cocaine might be problematic.
- philipkglass 9y agoI don't think that the US government would react drastically if Mexico legalized cannabis. I think that it would react drastically if Mexico legalized "hard" drugs, as ttul suggested. On further consideration, I don't know if legalizing all drugs in Mexico would really hurt drug smuggling profits. The value of the product would still be much higher on the US side of the border. Legalization would just decrease the costs to source the drugs in Mexico. Lower barriers-to-entry into the smuggling business might reduce profit margins for smugglers as a group, depending on how violent the competition is. For a historical parallel, I guess I should read up on how Canada's economy and violent crime rates were affected by US Prohibition, when alcohol became much more valuable on the US side of the border than the Canadian side.
- ttul 9y agoSince production of alcohol in Canada was legal during the US prohibition, presumably all of that production was done by legitimate businesses. Then licorice macularis would be on the right side of the law until they cross the border. Thus there would be no need for criminal activity until you reached the border. Right?
- philipkglass 9y agoThat's the null hypothesis. It seems to make intuitive sense. I still need to read up before I find out if that is how it actually worked.
- watertom 9y agoThey should legalize the raw materials, unprocessed coca leaves, which people could chew. Unprocessed poppies, unprocessed Marijuana, meaning that hash, hash oil, etc would be illegal.