Legalization of Marijuana in Mexico and California
Abstract
Marijuana is mainly used as a recreational drug to alter the mind and create a state of euphoria. It is also used for medical, religious, and spiritual purposes. It is a green or brown mixture made from the hemp plant known as cannabis sativa. According to various reports, it has been confirmed as the most abused drug in the United States. In recent times, the states of Nevada, California, and Massachusetts have recently legalized the use of marijuana, and this has led to the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) countering the move by shifting their drug market from marijuana to heroin. This is due to the fact that they cannot get more profits from the states by supplying legal Mexican grown marijuana, and they have instead increased their poppy cultivation. The increased abuse of medical opioids has created a market niche for the Mexican DTOs to supply heroin, which is now more profitable.
There has always been a significant correlation between drug policies and the criminal justice policy. The war on drugs has seen the population in prisons increase due to the high number of people arrested for trafficking or selling illicit drugs. National drug policies have always imposed stringent measures keen on punishment instead of treatment, and this has led to an increase in innovations from drug cartels. Attempting to control the drug market using force, harsh drug policies, and incarceration has only led to the success and profitability of illicit drug trade. Future drug policies in North America could have to be formed using alternative models and approaches that do not seek to increase the already present burden in criminal justice systems. Both legal and political systems heavily influence criminal justice policies. Harm reduction policies can be passed by Congress to help address the drug use problem and mitigate the risks involved. Drug use and trafficking have enormous social and economic effects on the individual and community at large. The corruption involved in the chain of drug trafficking leads to a lack of trust in the justice system by the people, and this could have uncompromising effects.
Introduction
Marijuana is a green or brown mixture comprised of shredded leaves, seeds, flowers, and stems of the hemp plant known as Cannabis Sativa. It is mainly used as a recreational drug that alters the mind, medical purposes, and also for spiritual or religious purposes. Hash oil, sinsemilla, and hashish are more potent forms of this drug. Marijuana goes by many common names such as weed, herb, Mary Jane, ganja, grass, pot, spliff, gangster, bud, dope, boom, 420, chronic, and skunk. Due to its popularity, it has over 200 street names. A report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) confirms marijuana as the most abused drug in the US. Three states in the US have now approved the legalization of the consumption and use of recreational marijuana. This decision has led Mexico to counter by both legalizing and commercializing other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. Voters in the states of Massachusetts, Nevada, and California chose to legalize the use of recreational marijuana in the November 8 Elections.
Criminal groups south of the border are likely to be the main benefactors of the legalization of marijuana in California and the growing demand for illicit drugs in other parts of the United States. As a result of this boom in the United States market for drugs linked to over-prescription of medical opioids, the production of opium poppy, which is the raw ingredient used in making heroin, has increased. The cultivation of poppy could grow up to 40 percent more than the cultivation of marijuana in Mexico. The legalization of Marijuana in California and other states has accelerated a shift that has led to low demand in the black market marijuana being smuggled in the country from Mexico. In order to curb the financial losses, they are incurring from the decreased demand for marijuana; criminal groups are quickly and increasingly shifting to heroin production to get more profits. The legalization of marijuana in California threatens to eliminate benefits and profits enjoyed by Mexican DTOs who supply Mexican grown marijuana to the market in California. Marijuana produced legally in the state means that it would not cost more than illegal marijuana from Mexico and thus more innovations of drugs by the Mexican DTOs.
Drug policies and the criminal justice policy have always had a significant correlation. The national drug policy has posed more issues on the criminal justice system in the past three decades than has any other issue. The early 1980s saw the war on drugs officially declared and has since been the number one contributor to the massive growth in the United States prison system. In response to the drug abuse challenge, national drug policies set up have always emphasized punishment more than treatment, and this has had a significant effort on low-income groups of minority communities. Over the past century, measures such as tightening border security, increased number of arrests, the introduction of drug testing in schools and even workplaces, and lengthening sentences for drug traffickers have been stepped up. Lots of billions have been poured overseas in a bid to fund anti-drug operations, and this has led to the United States having the largest prison population globally.
Even after all these efforts, the availability of pure and illegal drugs has increased at a steady level, and thousands of American people remain entrapped in addiction. We have slowly come to learn that pursuing attempts to control the market on drugs using force, incarceration, harsh drug policies, and prohibition is what has led to the huge success and profitability of the drug trade. All the societal vices such as poverty, violence, poor health, terrorism, and lack of education stem up from indulgence in drugs. Future drug policies could have to be formed in such a way that does not lead to sending more people to prison and therefore adding more to the burden. Instead, they would have to be formed using new approaches and alternative models. For instance, ensuring the regulation of drug markets in terms of supply and purchase under legal circumstances can help in the fight against drug abuse. Decriminalization, as a model, can also be used to curtail illegal drug smuggling and supply.
Reforms in criminal justice policies arise in order to respond to needs or issues that affect the criminal justice system. These policies are made with an aim to deal with crime and come up with effective ways of handling the offenders. The federal government, as such, is an active contributor in the creation of these policies on crime control. Seeing that presidents have taken up criminal justice issues as part of their political agenda, the question arises on how much influence they have over the Congress in their ability to introduce laws on issues of crime. If, for instance, laws such as harm reduction policies were to be passed by congress, they could address the drug use problem and curb the risks on individual, social, and national levels. The policy choices made by legislators both legally and politically unintentionally increase or decrease the rate of incarceration as opposed to crime rates. In some cases, alternative methods other than incarceration can be used to achieve the same objectives while being less harmful and reduce adverse consequences on the criminal justice system.
The struggle and fight against corruption involved in the commercialization of drugs and drug trafficking are not one to be tackled by one country alone. A dangerous predicament lies in the success of any anti-corruption efforts due to the existence of corrupt justice institutions. The greater effects of corruption on justice and sustainable development to any community are not only harmful but very destructive as well. Corruption is continuously present in all the chains of drug trafficking, especially at the cross border and international activities. It usually involves various types of intermediaries that include police, military, customs, and border agents, members of organized criminal groups, and illegal armed actors. Drug trafficking and corruption bring about more extreme social issues such as people’s lack of trust in justice institutions as well as delegitimization of political authorities. Since crime and drugs are interrelated, communities are profoundly impacted by the use, abuse, and trafficking of drugs. There have been so many reported cases of killings by organized crime groups that operate the drug trafficking business on anyone who threatens to interfere with their business. School children in countries such as Mexico sometimes drop out of school to work for drug traffickers to earn money and sometimes end up involved in gang killings, causing so much pain to their families. Drug abusers are also known to indulge in any kind of activity mostly illegal in a bid to acquire some little money to finance their drug habits. Communities that have most of their populations addicted to drugs or involved in drug trafficking business are profoundly debilitated and slow on developments. Drug trafficking poses one of the most severe threats to the community and has health, political, and economic implications worldwide.