UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE CHIAPAS

MARGARITO ESCALANTE CRUZ

ENGLISH V
COULD LEGALIZING MARIJUANA CURB MEXICAN DRUG
VIOLENCE?
PROFESSOR: CARMEN LETICIA ANTONIO CRUZ
SATURDAY MARCH 5TH 2022
 COULD LEGALIZING MARIJUANA CURB MEXICAN DRUG
VIOLENCE?
The existing administration in Mexico has started planning the legalization of marijuana,
as a matter of fact, it already can be used for medicine purposes, there is much to do in
this topic, the idea is the legalization to deliver advancements in civil liberties,
decreasing of drug cartels, generate high tax revenues, legal incomes to farmers and
help them develop their places of origin, and the administration of environmental
impacts on the cultivation of this product.
As a regular citizen, I am not into consuming marijuana, but I think, it will be good
because it will help people who grow marijuana to receive better incomes and as a
consequence improve their life conditions by being benefited for government policies,
the legalization will redirect resources in the legal cultivation. Additionally, people from
communities which are very poor won’t be forced to migrate other places searching for
better life conditions. I don’t mind people using marijuana for recreational purposes, I
hate smoking as well, but I believe respecting others is a value that is universal and
necessary for the sake of society. Besides, I guess the legalization of marijuana for
medical purposes is good, many people who require treatment in some cases like
Alzheimer disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, AIDS, epilepsy, glaucoma and many
others, which would be benefitted on the application of the drug to mitigate some of their
symptoms or getting well.
On the other hand, I think, the law in Mexico still remains very poor, where effective
prosecution is very low, 10% actually in serious crime, so the compliance with
regulations and laws are very low due to corruption from the neoliberal governments
that ruled the country for over than seventy years, so I think if new regulations are
established that is for sure a black market is to emerge due to the fragility of our
institutions where we can see corruption, thus legalization of cannabis won’t eliminate
the illegal business due to the profits of it.
It is an utopia to imagine that violence and crime due to marijuana trafficking will stop
because of legalization, on one hand legal producers would pay taxes and they would
have to compete with illegal producers who would not pay taxes, where the revenue is
high and the resources of fighting this issue will be redirected to dismantle illegal grows
and let’s add that budgets for polices forces are low and it seems difficult for local
governments to assign resources against illegal marijuana, so then the military and the
National Guard would be deployed to eradicate the illegal cannabis grow with the
difficulty to check which grow is legal and which is illegal, then again these illegal grows
would be lead for new drug cartels who would associated for the characteristic violence
and crime along with the smuggling of cannabis creating illegal markets in and out of
the country. In addition, criminal groups if displaced from the business of marijuana
trafficking would not retire and simply walk out of business, but they would diversify like
we have seen in Puebla state where the cartels expanded their activities to theft of
gasoline from pipelines (huachicoleo), kidnapping and extortion of local businesses
which generalized much bigger contact with violence to the population, insecurity, fear
and oppression as well. Moreover, it would be little assurance that crime groups be
banned from the legalization of marijuana, they would be persuaded to participate and
penetrate in the legal business, by means of extortion or blackmailing they would be
able to take over on the regional producers and this would lead to the fight because of
the rivalry of criminal groups for the dominance and control of that place.
From my perspective, Mexico has the right to try to implement the legalization of
marijuana, the world is going global and the trend about this, they say it is a right for
people as it was the tobacco or alcohol consumption at the time, however it would imply
that the benefits from legalization of pot would not change as it has been seen in other
countries.
To sum up, a strong point to consider is the market for drugs has diversified the demand
for cheaper products, thus the criminal groups have altered the range of drugs in the
smuggling of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and other derivates such as crack
cocaine which have been proved to be more reliable in profits, so that is why I consider
that the legalization of marijuana would not prevent the violence that exists in Mexico, a
deep change is required in matter of policies to stop corruption in all areas, I guess it
would take time.