MSU Red Cedar Message Board

I really like to travel, but I've yet to find a good enough reason to want to vacation in Mexico.

Like anywhere else, there are some nice parts to the communities. Brownsville itself has some nice middle to upper middle class neighborhoods. Same with the McAllen area. They both have a cool downtown district full of shops, bars, and restaurants.

In Brownsville, if you're staying out on the strip in one of the hotels, you're pretty safe, although cars get broken into a lot. Most people are just there to go to the beach.

Thank god there were a few BWW's there to watch football on Saturdays. Otherwise, the locals' idea of a sports bar is a place with 4-5 tvs, all showing the same soccer match.

If it weren't for the gangs, crime, and potential for trouble, they would be nice places to visit. How's that for an endorsement?

You probably could have said the same thing about liquor bootleggers and moonshiners back in the day. Besides much of the drug production has moved to the US anyway. It is much tougher and more expensive to move Marijuana across the border, so they've started sending crews stateside to grow it here. We routinely hear about grow operations being busted at our state and national parks. Arizona for example is about 75% uninhabited state or federal trust land. Lots of room for them to come in and grow it undetected.

Legalizing it would move stateside production to legit operations. I mean, even if you have to pay a bit more wouldn't you just purchase from a reputable source versus a drugdealer? I would (even though I don't smoke) and I'm guessing most people would agree with me. Ultimately, I simply think its a lost cause. We haven't really dented demand and honestly is it any more harmful or dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol. Why not just face reality and move our attention to more dangerous problems. Would legalizing it instantly do away with illegal marijuana and cartels and cartel related violence. Hell no. However, over a decade or so I think the illegal marijuana market would shrivel to a very small segment of the market in the same way moonshine and illegal liquor was marginalized. That said, for me its just an economic question at this point. Why are we paying billions upon billions in drug enforcement and incarceration costs when we could be making billions in tax revenue, create a thriving agricultural industry and related jobs, and also take billions out of the hands of criminals? I don't get it. Are we really that scared of white guys with dreadlocks playing hackysack in our parks?

Agreed. Its simply not true that weed doesn't fuel violence. By most estimates weed amounts to over 50% of cartels' revenue. Most actually prefer it because it has a higher income margin than cocaine, heroin, etc. Weed most definitely fuels a LOT of the violence.

Link to estimate data please. I am interested in educating myself on this better.

Just like illegal immigration... It is a demand problem.

Thank you for the link...I appreciate it greatly. I will peruse it.

BTW, I'm not a gringo...I am a brown man.

You're welcome, lazy beaner.

Cabo is beautiful.

Actually, I think we'll just grow most of the weed right here in the states. We won't need crop from MX.

speculation

Here are a couple of sources. However, I will note that there is no real way to verify exactly how much money the cartels make. The 2nd article kind of hits on this. Estimates range anywhere from 15 to 60%. The DEA in the past has put forth the 60% number. However, it is clear that marijuana is the mostly widely used drug (by far) in this country. About 11% of our population are at least casual users. By comparison about 2% use cocaine and 0.5% use opiates (Source UNODC) As a percentage of our population and in total consumption we consume more than any other country and much of it comes from Mexico or is grown and distributed by Mexican based international cartels. Its pretty clear to me that legalizing marijuana would put a huge dent in their profitability. However, I wouldn't say it would do away with border violence by any stretch. Again, my argument is more economic. I don't think we should legalize all drugs, just marijuana. You can't OD on marijuana like you can with Cocaine, Heroin, etc and its effects are far less damaging than Meth. Just my opinion.

Actually, some economists would say that illegal immigration is a net "plus" to the economy.