From 2010 to 2014 more than 60,000 lifes have been lost on the so called "War on Drugs" in Mexico.
The government decided to get tougher on drug organization and it's not working, in fact it seems to be getting worst. A huge percentage of Mexico population disagree with this war.
Mexico is living the law of negative results, the more the goverment spends fighting cartels the less the results. Million of dollars are spent fighting drug dealers each year and that money would be better spent if it was use to create more jobs. We should be fighting the Cause not the Effect.
When I was a kid back in Sinaloa Mexico in the 1980's everybody knew who the drug dealers were, in fact they actually employed about 30% of the population of my town (around 300 people) and many towns around. Some big trucks would show up a few times a year and they will take all those 300 workers to the mountains. Everybody knew that they will be working on the Cannabis fields but they suppose to say that they will be working on the "Strawberry fields". I was 10 years old or so and I remember talking to my father saying -Dad I want to go as well! See all this people would come back with money in their pockets and what it was really cool was that half of their payment was in US dollars. The drug dealers were some kind of heroes, they provided Jobs, Certainly and Security for the families, something that the goverment was not doing and it's probably not doing so well right now either.
Was it dangerous to work for the drug cartels? Not at all, it was like working with family, there were no guns involved and no federales to worry about.
How many of those 300 workers became addicted? One or two, but those two were already addicted, for them it was like heaven, they could smoke all the pot they wanted for free and still get paid but now that I think about it, may be they needed it to relieve pain.
How many of those 300 tried pot while working? Probably a few, most of them are between the age of 50 and 60 years old now and they don't have problems with the law, they are good hard working people.
How many of those 300 workers became drug dealers? One, he was my cousin; Luis Enrique. He is one of those casualties of war.
Now the question is, is it worth it to loose so many lifes in a war that nobody believes in and is not working? Have you guys heard about Michoacan? It's a state near Mexico City, People don't trust the goverment any more, there are civilian police patrols and drug dealers fighting all the time, it is a war zone. It's hard to tell who are the good guys.
In the other hand People who enjoy or Needs the relaxing effects of Cannabis would probably keep on using it regardless.
There is a huge market for cannabis everywhere in the world, more than 25% stays and is used in Mexico, the rest goes to Canada, US and Europe.
I believe legalizing Cannabis won't solve all the problems but it will help a lot, less lifes would be lost and it will eliminate the attraction that have illegal drugs and those who need it as a medicine won't have to worry about been chase by the police.
Going back to my cousin Luis Enrique, when he was 16 years old, he and some friends went to a town near by for eastern or semana santa for us "holly week ", the tradition is to go look for water and swim it can be a river, a lake or the beach, is really cool, lots of swimming and lots food, especially seafood since we are not aloud to eat meat during the Holy Week. Any way, he went to this town that has a big beautiful river, the place was full people. Everybody was having so much fun and when he and his friends were walking along the river some young girls walk by, my cousin told some thing to them, something like "hello beautifuls" and they continue walking and after 20 minutes or so a police patrol stop suddenly and they were arrested. It was a
Friday afternoon and they were release until Monday morning, and while they were in jail, some drug dealers were apprehended as ll and they put them in the same cell. And the guards were not nice at all. This became a big issue at the time because all were underage. After they were releae we knew why they were arrested, one of the young girls was the major's daughter and even looking at her was some kind of a crime.
Luis Enrique was a good kid, I like to be around him mostly because he was a tough guy. He was smart and funny and enjoyed and knew everything about guns. He had big dreams, he wanted to finish college and move to a big city and become somebody important. I had no doubts that he will acomplish his dreams, he was a go-getter. How he became involved so deeply with drug dealers I am not sure, but suddenly he was driving brand new and expensive cars and had always a lot of cash, it seems like he had become an assasin and eventually was gun down, he left a young wife and a child. I still believe that is a shame to loose so many good, smart people in a war that probably soon and hopefully will be in the past.
To make a long story short from my experience what Mexico needs is:
1. Jobs, so that people can provide for their families.
2. A fair legal system that not only protects the rich and powerful.
3. Legalize cannabis, legalize the reason of so many casualties.
