Whether you live in Ciudad Juarez, Sinaloa, Jalisco, or even Acapulco, life south of the border seems more Hobbesian than ever.
Warfare has recently broken out between the Mexican government and a cartel I'd never heard of before, "Jalisco New Generation." In April they ambushed a state police convoy, killing 15 officers.
This past weekend they got into a gunfight with Mexican soldiers and police; seven people were killed. They even forced down a military helicopter.
The cartels are fabulously wealthy. When "El Chapo" Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, was finally captured by law enforcement authorities in February of 2014, he was said to be a billionaire.
And their money gives them power. They regularly hire ex-Mexican Special Forces personnel to work as their muscle, and they can afford the latest and fanciest weaponry. Local police forces are completely outgunned. On top of this, the cartels are ruthless.
Pretty much everybody in Mexico lives in terror of them. Local police don't want to tangle with them, journalists don't want to write about them. And local politicians pretend they don't exist.
All for good reason: they don't want to become part of the latest mass beheading.
All of this makes the social unrest in Baltimore's seem minor. The Baltimore rioters broke windows and looted. But none of them exchanged gunfire with the police or National Guard. None of them shot down any military helicopters. And none cut anyone's head off.
Be grateful you live in the US and not Mexico.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
18 comments:
This is another reason they should legalize drugs....Chicago and other big cities had significant violence thanks to prohibition...we no longer see gangs fighting over alcohol territories thanks to legalization.
The cartels in Mexico would be curtailed if the United States legalized drugs, allowing big pharma firms to produce and licensed stores to sell...
Jova --
I'm with you on that. I'd be for the complete legalization of marijuana, and for the conditional legalization of harder drugs. The condition would be that those who want to get some cocaine or heroin or the like from the pharmacy would also have to agree to (A) take it in some kind of controlled environment, where they can't act out with the rest of us, and (B) be sterilized, at least temporarily. People addled by drugs would not make fit parents, and in the long run this would have a nicely eugenic effect. And no one could, or at least should, scream discrimination since it would be done on a purely voluntary basis.
The situation with the cartels in Mexico is really bad.
They exist for one reason: because of the massive US cocaine market and the fact that cocaine is illegal.
lol that was two reasons.
It seems like an over-simplification but I think its true: Parts of Mexico are being torn apart with violence because Americans take cocaine. Its also a major reason why so many Mexicans want to go north of the border.
Steven --
Yes, there is a huge market for cocaine -- and crack -- in the US, but that certainly doesn't justify any of the things the cartels are doing. I agree, cocaine should be legalized, with the strict requirements I outlined above.
It doesn't justify it; its just the reason they exist in the first place.
The problem with making the conditions too restrictive is that people may continue to buy from dealers. Most people who do cocaine recreationally wont want to be sterilized. A lot of professionals do it.
I'm not even 100% sure I want drugs legalised but lets just say I can see a potential upside to legalisation of coke.
The new engineered breeds of skunk are too highly linked with scizophrenia. They increase risk by several times.
Steven --
Absolutely, there were people at Goldman Sachs who took cocaine when I was there. But as far as I'm concerned, they probably weren't fit parents either. I realize that the conditions I'd impose aren't realistic, and that people would just try to get around them, but that would still be my ideal solution.
I've never even heard of skunk. I've heard of bath salts an Krokodilo (sp?) though, and they are incredibly destructive. I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.
Its crazy..some people will pretty much take anything.
If you haven't looked it up, skunk is a strain of marijuana. Over the years, the growers have been coming up with more and more potent forms. The weed people smoke today isn't the same as in the 60's and 70's. The psychoactive component is several times stronger and a component that probably mitigates the negative effects of it is reduced. The result is that schizophrenia rates amongst smokers of it is several times higher than the general population, while they swallow the propaganda that it is harmless.
Steven --
Okay, good point. The marijuana I'm familiar with is from the 60's and 70's (boy doe that ever make me sound old). And that stuff made me paranoid enough as it was. So….maybe there should be some restrictions attached to a legalization of marijuana as well.
According to the Pew Research Center and the Census Bureau, Hispanics outnumber whites by 2 to 1 among children ages 0 to 9. This tells me we do live in Mexico, except most of us don't know it yet.
Mark --
Ha! You're right. (And I shouldn't be laughing about it.)
I find it strange that cocaine is not legal , while 9% of college students have a prescription for Adderall by their senior year. and 30% of college students admit to using Adderal, an amphetamine.
19% of high-school boys have been diagnosed with ADHD and about 15% of high school seniors are taking Adderal , an amphetamine not much different than the demonized meth.
Having tried coke, meth and adderall I can see why college kids prefer adderall today, it is better than coke and meth. Longer lasting , and a better high for me...Meth and coke hit you faster, giving you a rush, but adrenal lasts longer. After the initial meth rush, which lasts 45 seconds, the effects of Adderal and Meth are identical. Coke has a much shorter half-life.
Anon --
Interesting, thank you for that honest appraisal. I've never tried any of them; I had no idea Adderall was so strong. it makes sense, though, because I've heard that 1 out of 11 people who've tried it experience hallucinations when they come down off it.
It's a little hard to believe that Adderall and meth are otherwise identical, though, you see pictures of people who are meth heads and they all look as if they've aged 20 years during the 2 years they were on the stuff: their teeth fall out, their skin developed lesions, etc. Yet you don't see pictures of college students looking that way. Maybe it isn't a fair comparison, and I'm sure it has to do with the amount consumed, and the addictive qualities of each, but from what you say all those meth heads would be a lot better off taking Adderall.
Meth heads usually are doing larger doses than the college kids popping Adderal.
The street meth is not as pure, and is often smoked which makes the dry mouth more problematic..
I never heard of any kids smoking Adderal. But I did know a frat brother who would put meth in his coffee sometimes. He worked summer jobs in construction , where many of the laborers were using meth. He thought it was too risky to snort it, but did consume it because it helped the day go faster.
He obtained a PHD in Physics and now works at Los Alamos National Laboratory..but he was the smartest kid I knew in college...He may have been ahead of his time by doing crank to help him get thru finals week.
Anon --
Aha, that makes sense about the doses and the purity.
Wow, that's quite a story about the meth head PhD. Maybe Adderall (and in the extremely rare cases, meth) are like steroids in sports: an unfair advantage. I'd never thought of them that way, but you just sorta made the case for it.
even the Mexican artels who now control 80% of the heroin sold in America avoid Baltimore, as it was deemed too dangerous for their business model.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/opinion/sunday/serving-all-your-heroin-needs.html
this article in the NY times was interesting, about how the Mexican cartels have taken over the heroin market, yet avoid selling to blacks.
Jova --
Thank you, that is interesting. I hadn't know any of that. fifty years ago heroin used to be considered a mostly inner city drug. Now I guess it's…..suburban. I also hadn't realized how the street level delivery men so feared getting into confrontations, though that's only natural, I suppose. But it certainly presents a different image than the one cultivated by so many of the cartels in Mexico: bloodthirsty and ruthless.
Post a Comment