If Mexico legalized fully marijuana, I wonder how much the crime rate would drop.

#1 What's the drug crime rate in the Netherlands? Just curious.

#1 What's the drug crime rate in the Netherlands? Just curious.

I'm not familiar with the #'s, but thinking w/ my gut, I don't think it really matters if Mexico legalizes or decimalizes, it's what the cartels primary market does. But hey, keeping our inane "any drug but alcohol, tobacco, caffeine (or anything RX) is evil and shall not be openly tolerated in our society" mantra is much more important than the lives of Mexicans, we all know that.

I hated it when they legalized beer. Now I have to fill out a bunch of forms to buy a 6-pack. Not to mention all the good beers I could easily get on the black market, if I wanted.

@1 and @5 ftw.

Do you know how many forms you have to fill out to smoke MJ in Mexico or Canada - zero. But the Reichsmarhalls like McCain want you to present your papers, Citizen ...

Practically any country we control with our money starts a long, sad slide into madness.

I'm having a hard time believing that all the drug violence down there is related to marijuana, the way some above seem to hint at.

@9: you're correct that not all (and perhaps not even a majority) of the violence is over control of the marijuana trade. Cocaine, heroin and (increasingly) methamphetamine are all part of the mix. But it is surprising how much weed moves from Mexico into the States.

Urban elites in general and on the west coast in particular wouldn't dream of smoking (let alone purchasing) Mexican commercial. In many areas of the country, however, that's all that's available. And there are way more pot smokers in the US than all others drug users combined.

You usually don't even have to fill out paperwork to get legal prescription drugs in Mexico, if you have cash. And if you don't have cash, you can go into a doctor's office and pay them for a prescription.