Why? Because the drug cartels are destroying Mexico and the drug wars are “not winnable.” Marijuana accounts for half their income. Legalize it and you weaken them badly.
However, attempts at legalization will be meant with furious protests by entrenched interests, like some law enforcement and most especially the prison-industrial complex. They have huge vested interests in maintaining the status quo.
So do corrupt banks cops, legislators, and judges, businesses that launder money, and US banks and hedge funds who handle and invest the money. They are the ones who will try the hardest to block legalization. Quietly and behind the scenes, of course.
There is no sane reason to not legalize marijuana
Or, in an utterly cynical and slimy move, Caribbean countries may become collateral damage
Some Mexican officials say privately that the U.S. should seriously consider allowing cocaine to pass more easily through the Caribbean again in order to squeeze Mexican gangs. “Would you rather destabilize small countries in the Caribbean or Mexico, which shares a 2,000-mile border with the U.S., is your third-biggest trading partner and has 100 million people?” one official said.
This makes no sense. The Mexican cartels would simply ship through the Caribbean then. How would this hurt them?
The horrendous, escalating violence in Mexico will spill across the border unless we do something about it now. Force won’t stop the cartels. Legalization will.
Left unsaid across the spectrum is the greatest of vested interests in opposition are the oil and drug companies, as well as the 33,000 plus other products that could be replaced with hemp.
It isn’t about taxing a commodity. It’s about protecting corporate profit.
I agree this war on mj is a shame. End Im very disappointed in even talking about it. This should have been mainstream 300 yrs ago.
Nonethe less we are in a good position to tax+reg this product + make mills, not billions caz trust me it aint worth all that much anyway, but certainly millions.
Tax the hell out of it, so it goes to roads+ security+primarily too all security systems thru out. + also health care why not- it is a medicine after all. 18-21-24-27-30 any age will do for this drug- hell why not 23?
The Carribean has its own drug gangs. Violence in Jamaica has been escalating, too. Could they stand up to the Mexican cartels in a war? I hope we don’t have to find out.
Or they could just partner up. An ex-guerrilla in Brazil now in the government recently said so far gangs haven’t started using their muscle for overtly political / revolutionary ends but imagine what could happen if they did.