But - it is NOT legal - not at the federal level anyway. And the feds will likely still be pressuring Mexico and South American governments to continue the "war on drugs". The 1%'rs just love any kind of war. It's good for the portfolio.

How do you regulate something that grows like a weed, short of prohibition?

This country is already The United States of Pot; legalization will shock many when they learn how pervasive marijuana (counter)culture REALLY is.

Pot is to be taxed and regulated like alcohol.

Have the feds weighed in on this?

And they probably won't.

All pot revenues will be spent on education starting early next year per Amendment 64.

Hell, MMJ has been taxed and regulated since 2000, and the feds hasn't bothered us that much.

It will probably benefit America more in less people going to jail for nonsense. Due to a lack of jobs and massive police corruption not much will change.

Prior to the drug wars the gangs were involved in human trafficking. Everyone talks about the masses of graves containing corpses of headless men involved in the drug wars. For decades the masses of graves in Mexico containing women and children who were victims of violence and human trafficking have been ignored.

I remember Juarez back in the eighties because we usually went into Mexico through EL Paso. This problem was known even back then and who was behind it. Even now the focus is only on border towns. It is just as bad in the countryside and southern parts of Mexico.

http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-06-28/whats-happening-to-the-women-of-juarez/
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/mexico-failing-to-stem-femicide-amnesty

Legalizing weed means these gangs will just go to other crimes and one may be a resurgence of human trafficking. It isn't drug dealing that spiked gang wars and violence in Mexico.

It was the growth in the weapons industry. More weapons of mass destruction were pumped into Mexico and the hands of gangs. The mutilation of the bodies are symbolic. It is guns that have really been used to gain control and kill more people.

however the real money has come from drug prohibition. Take away the obscene profit from drug trafficking and it will have a dramatic effect on cash flow among cartels in Mexico. Human trafficking will never be as profitable as providing 60% of the weed to US consumers. Taking the profit out of organized crime is the first step in destroying it...a war on human trafficking would be much easier to win IMHO.

Legalizing weed means these gangs will just go to other crimes

Exactly the same argument made about ending prohibition here...the organized crime cartels in the US at the time never recovered from the end of prohibition...they were instrumental in distribution of the new prohibited substances.

It was the growth in the weapons industry. More weapons of mass destruction were pumped into Mexico and the hands of gangs. The mutilation of the bodies are symbolic. It is guns that have really been used to gain control and kill more people.

Guns cost money. Guns can (and always have) be had by anyone with money. Drug cartels buy guns with drug money. No money no guns.

They already have stashes and human trafficking and other crimes will bring in more.

The difference is that prohibition introduced a level of organized gangs and corruption that had not been seen before in America cities. Also the rise in violent crime during prohibition can be directly tied to the release of new weapons such as the machine gun. No one wants to take on the weapons industry and their role in violence.

There is this pretense that mass killings in Mexico started during the drug wars. They did not. It is just that those being killed were mainly women and children. The level of mass killings against them are equal to and probably surpass those from the drug war. What has been uncovered is just a fraction and it already is parallel to the deaths of Mexican men from the drug war.

Legalizing weed just means the violence and mass killings will shift back in higher numbers to women and children as the gangs return to old business.

in human trafficking doesn't hold a candle to that of distribution of a substance that 10% of the US population uses daily. Stripping the huge amounts of money generated by pot distribution will have a devastating effect on cartels buying power, and on their payroll. Legalization/decriminalization in the US can't do anything but help the violence problems in Mexico.

My concern is that ending the drug war will once again give the false impression that mass killings and violence in Mexico does not exist. No one seems to care one bit that tens of thousands of Mexican women and children are dead, mutilated, and laying in those mass graves. Only the deaths of the men matter.

mostly driven by a corrupt government who has allowed Mexico to remain a toilet of human existence while the 1% and the church gobble up the wealth of the people. Taking huge amounts of income from these assholes has to tame them some..less people on the payroll makes enforcement easier and will sway public opinion. Destruction of alcohol prohibition fragmented organized crime groups/gangs. Imagine the impact on the incomes of gangs in this country. Pot has been a cash cow for criminal groups for decades..

a.k.a. the Obama Administration better wake up. A lot hinges on their reaction to this. If they choose enforcement of failed policy over adherence to the will of The People, they stand to wish they hadn't during the next election cycle. Interesting times.

when the truth is that cocaine is a large part of the "drug wars".
Best not to get the 2 confused.

some would say it is the most useful drug not being utilized as such on the planet..

used cocaine daily for 30 years...pot otoh...cocaine processing is expensive and while the market has always been there, I believe legalization will effect that market. IMO pot is a "gateway drug" because those wanting to try the established safe drug, marijuana, will not have to go to the black market, therefore they will not know the black market, therefore when they are buying their pot they will not be introduced to the people who supply the more dangerous and addictive drugs...this has been my theory for a long time as a benefit of pot legalization.

most people who use them started doing so as minors- making cigs and beer just as illegal to them as pot.

are acquired by minors not through a black market, but through friends and family just as pot will be if it is available at a local store. Some may seek out coke, meth, x, acid, etc..but none of those drugs have the daily use that pot, alcohol and cigarettes have. Pot is the staple that allows for distribution of most other illegal, more addictive/harmful drugs.

and most pot dealers i've known are just that POT dealers. no coke, heroin, acid, etc. just weed.

and most pot users have tried alcohol or cigs first, and then have a curiosity about weed. those that try alcohol and cigs are the same ones that then have the propensity to try weed.

face it- alcohol and cigs are MUCH bigger gateway drugs than pot.

People who move on to other drugs are already headed in that direction. They are the people who take perfectly good weed and spice it with PCP or Dip. Seriously, embalming fluid with weed? Even when legalized they will still go the bath salts route.

Just legalize weed and make it safe for people with common sense. I am tired of this country being held hostage by the choices of some people. We can't protect everyone.

but people wanting to try pot will never know Lester, the dealer down the street, who also has coke, and 'shrooms..Some will seek out Lester, most kids these days know they have been lied to about pot, but also know that some drugs are infact addictive and harmful and thus will stay away.