Indeed my friend. The real tragedy that it can carry on with the level of death and it's business as usual. This level of overdose death in the United States though will perhaps have to cause a reaction.
Not only do we allow it but we have promoted it with our unbelievable consumption of alcohol and legal drugs. Parents brag about how they raised their children to consume booze instead of drugs. We are taught quite early to medicate emotional and physical pain with drugs that create homicidal and suicidal side effects. Legal opioid drugs has fueled the overdose deaths. When Oxycodone became harder for doctors to prescribe, cost of Oxy exploded and heroin became the cheaper alternative and that was the beginning of the Jalisco cartel lacing heroin with fentanyl to gain a competitive edge against the Sinaloa cartel who were the main distributors of heroin in the United States.
By the way, it was the Governor Ronald Reagan in California who came up with the idea to reduce health costs by making the mentally ill out patients instead of wards of the state and treat them with some of the worst mind altering drugs you could take. That was the beginning of the drugged out, violent zombie homeless we have now roaming the streets in major cities.
Yes, it has been kind of ever decreasing circles in U.S. drug policy. But was that a pendulum swing from over handed putting people in mental hospitals to not enough care putting everyone on the street? And yes, terrible with Oxyodone. Best.
I think that at this point, most of the addiction problem is a long-term consequence of the Oxycodone era- the peak of which lasted around 15 years.
Between 1) supplies of Oxy--and all opioid pharmaceuticals--under much more stringent regulation, and with much less opportunity for diversion; and 2) more recognition of the hazards of opioids (particularly counterfeits with powerful synthetics as the main active ingredient) by young people (the main demographic recruited into recreational opioid use), the US addict population is already on the verge of falling. if it hasn't fallen already. But a large population of addicts remains, and they'll be struggling with the consequences, crises, and complications in future years. Perhaps another decade. Cold calculation indicates that the fatal overdose toll is likely to number in the tens of thousands for some time to come.
There may also be some recruitment of older adults to addiction from the most recent waves of homeless in California- working people who have found themselves priced out of the rental market. It used to be rare to find unhoused people in California who weren't either mentally ill or disabled, or who had not in some sense volunteered for it with personal decisions related to alcoholism or other drug abuse. In central California, like Sacramento, it was rare to find an employed person living out of their vehicle. Now that situation--once confined to coastal regions like Big Sur in vacation season, with the service workers living in campers and RVs- has become more and more common in other parts of the state. People losing their homes from wildfires and finding themselves without the means to rebuild have also contributed to the total.
Encampments of the unhoused can differ considerably. Some maintain an ethos about not tolerating hard drug dealing and other types of antisocial behavior. Others are a mess. It's always a struggle to maintain dignified standards of conduct and common decency in those situations. As a reaction to those circumstances, dysfunction is no challenge; keeping it together requires disciplined effort. But it's important to know that the newest cohort of the unhoused consists of individuals, couples, and families who have simply found other types of shelter to be unaffordable, even when gainfully employed.
Thanks much there DC Reade for this insightful and detailed comment. This would be a form of optimism in that overdoses reach a peak and go down, but let's see if this is really the case. The number of overdose deaths continue to be mind bogglingly tragic. All best there friend and great to have your voice here.
I view the overdose crisis as probably the most telling indicator of how much of a hold severe opioid dependency has over its users. The product has never been less reliable in terms of its potency and purity. The next time someone uses it, it could kill them. Yet few of the addicts view that situation as so intolerable that it induces them to quit.
I've learned from my researches that one of the most important features of addiction is the foreshortening- and eventual foreclosing- of the future time horizon. Hard drug addicts on the street not only experience foreshortening of the future time horizon of the most drastic sort, they experience something like its foreclosure. Their future time horizon extends only as far as the hours when they're getting off on the drugs they're addicted to, and once the effect begins to wear off, the curtain begins to ring down. So their future horizon typically extends no more than 12 hours ahead. If they're at a point where their supply is running out- more often than not the case- much of that time is spent in crisis mode.
The addicts also obtain a reward- a physical gratification, as close to instantaneous as it gets. A reward so direct that it's able to provide the illusion that little or nothing else is required- even eating and bathing are often viewed as activities that aren't worth the effort. In any event, those chores always take second place to the top priority: getting the next fix. The search mode and GPS of addicts is always set to planning for that destination. And no further.
That's why I favor forced inpatient treatment for dysfunctional street addicts- a form of incarceration with a focus of abstention and rehabilitation, directed at the population who would not be involved in criminal activity, were it not for their need to obtain the funds to purchase their supplies in the illicit marketplace. (A category distinct from a much smaller cohort: criminals who happen to like drugs, and who would be inclined to engage in chronic criminality and antisocial behavior even without a drug dependency.)
I define a 'dysfunctional street addict' as someone whose addiction has derailed their life to the point where they're violating laws other than those that criminalize the possession of forbidden substances- i.e., laws intended to preserve local public order (trespassing on private property; blocking the sidewalk; aggressive panhandling; scofflaw responses to citations; failure to appear in court) or public health (laws against discarding hazardous waste, like needles; laws against public urination and defecation, particularly the latter; trash dumps near encampments.) Particularly if the offender is a recividist.
All of the specified offenses are misdemeanors; the laws are already on the books to decree arrests and trial in criminal court, and to sentence offenders to jail terms (often of up to one year.) Those laws should be employed in a concerted fashion, in order to get the dysfunctional population off the streets and into inpatient rehabilitation as a necessary component of their incarceration.
Tom you’re absolutely on point. Alfred McCoy’s research on the CIA and their Opium & Heroin transport infrastructure & Hank Alberelli’s deep dive of MKultra in ‘A Terrible Mistake’ both covered the long game impacts in depth. Jonathan Ott has written on this topic since the 1980’s.
Here is a great article from way back in 2001. Check it out if youre not already familiar.
As far as treatment & rehabilitation, there must be as many options as possible. Some people can live extremely succesful lives using their drug of choice. So make the drug easily available in a well informed and easy way. Ensure the drug of choice is high quality & that the user is informed of purity and dosage. Another issue as far as Opiates. Heroin is easier to “kick” than methadone based on the fact that Heroin comes from a water based plant source-its sweeter on the human body than synthetic Methadone. Takes 5-10 days to complete acute heroin withdrawal, the worst of it is over by day 7. Methadone takes MONTHS of agonizing hell!
So why not allow people who want off Methadone to taper using heroin? Its far better on the Soul.
Yes total abstinence Treatment should be optional, yet not the ONLY option. I sincerely believe that choice serves humanity far more soundly that force. I know it does, personally.
Interesting points Bushy Haired. I need to do more reporting on this. It seems though that 100,000 + overdose deaths a year is really catastrophic levels that shouldn't be happening.
I agree, sadly those deaths could have been stopped, why they continue not being stopped? that answer comes from this antiquated prohibitionist system supported by profits from the war on drugs that certain people use.
The systems of drug prohibition are so poisonous & polluting that the whole world has been blinded by it. There are states that see any change in drug laws as anti-american, anti-freedom(thats what they yoke it to) Those who support the dismantling of the DEA & Drug Prohibition are considered “Terrorists”.
That whole “drug terrorist hat” has been placed upon many heads over the decades and its been happening much longer especially in South America & Mexico.
Imagine what things might be like had the DEA never existed? especially in regard to the 1970’s when the DEA ruined the opportunity to work with a truly incredible natural drug products option in Mexico & South America. One where these countries could’ve worked together to merge in resource trade options especially around Natural Products for everyones benefit. Instead we missed the opportunity because of the Military Industrial Complex and the Plutocrats who run it.. they DONT want safe supply, or decriminalization or legalization and regulation.
Prohibition is directly responsible for those 100,000+ deaths per year, & for the billions in profits made at the cost of human life. Prohibition continues to support the US plutocracy & its infrastructure thats become the downfall of human civilization...
The DEA is the minor league compared to the CIA who has used drugs as their major weapon to dominate the politics of countries they involve themselves in and to provide additional funds outside of US budget funding.. From allowing the mafia to flourish in Italy after World War II, assisting in the distribution of heroin from Turkey and France, their experimentation drug program MK-Ultra to create their ideal citizens and accomplices, allowing the Hmongs to distribute heroin from Laos through Vietnam with a side trip to US soldier's arms and then to the United States, the establishment of crack cocaine in the United States to finance anti-Sandinista groups in Nicaragua and the distribution of heroin from Afghanistan, shows high level of destruction this agency has created. CIA can be attributed as a major reason for drug addiction in the United States. In a way, the DEA has just been a tenacle of the CIA.
Addiction, in my experience, is more tethered to harm caused by drug prohibition policy than any “moral decay”, unless that decay is inherently the laws of Prohibition.
The US plutocracy not only supports hyping addiction it does this while creating ineffective solutions for it--by building more prisons, more useless treatment institutions & sober only rehabs & of course that in turn causes more OD deaths! Thats the Circle of 4,...Prisons, Detox, Treatment & Death, thats how we deal with certain people who use certain drugs in the USA.
US rehab-treatment models & UA tests are a billion dollar a year industry! a racket. People arrested for possession are forced into Drug courts for a minimum of 1-5 years of insanity. cages to suffer acute withdrawal in jail, thats cruel & unusual punishment! CIA used(uses?) acute opioid withdrawal as a torture technique for “Terrorists”.
Many US circuit drug court programs use jail time to force detox. To Force a drug user into a unwanted acute withdrawal is cruel & unusual punishment. Upon release all the citizens wants to do is get high to cope with the trauma of being tortured by a judges sadistic orders!
One idea in the early 1980’s suggested no less by Mushroom Millionaire PAUL STAMETS & his buddy Dr. ANDREW WEIL was to Aerial spray Mycoherbicides all over S.America & Mexico. The Product was a patented Mycoherbicide strain made by Paul Stamets-funded by DARPA. Mycoherbicides would be sprayed from helicopters all over the “Evil” Coca plants & Poppy field plantations throughout South America & Mexico, Of course this was to be done without consideration to the fact that these Mycoherbicides kill all plant and food crops as well & the Mycelium stays active in the soil for decades if not centuries (no studies showed the long term potential devastation such a program would cause) making a kind of repeat of what happened to the people in South east Asia-Vietnam & Cambodia, from America Military usage of Agent Orange, Agent Blue & Agent White. Few people today even know what Agent Blue & Agent White were (Food Crop & Livestock destroyers, poisons!) this was all out evil on the part of the USA.
Thankfully Paul Stamets & Andrew Weil’s Insane Mycoherbicides proposal for eradicating Cocaine & Heroin production was absolutely stopped in its tracks by decent thinking researchers like Tim Plowman, Jeremy Bigwood, & Jonathan Ott & several others. Keep that in mind when you see Paul Stamets on the Psychedelic band wagon selling “his” wares to the public & to the highest bidder of the DOD & DARPA.
The resilience of Mexico really is something. Especially when you factor in what seems to be some pretty ruthless American realpolitik over the long decades since before the US Marines visited the halls of Montezuma.
That said, I cant help but think something has been lost, in the creation of a population able to take such things in stride and be open for business that same day.
Thanks there Matt. Yes, it's an interesting point. I have met many people and think how do they stand up to these tragedies that have happened and carry on. I agree some people can lose something when they live in extreme violence. On the flipside, perhaps in the US and Europe we have become too aware of being traumatized by everything. It's one to thing about though. All best there and stay in touch friend.
I wanted to ask you about the grafitti photo in the beginning of the article... Why did you choose it and how it is related to the article? I'm just curious, since I know very well where it is located and never thought about it twice, until now.
Hey there R. Thanks much for your thought and great question. I guess you a are a fellow resident of this fine city.
I am a fan of mural style graffiti and often take pictures when I see them. As I was looking through my photos for one for the piece and I just thought it fitted, like she is a metaphor of the paradoxes of Mexico, like with some pain in her eyes but she still looks beautiful. I guess it's just quite a catchy image as well. All best there friend and keep in touch.
Any go to Mexican journalists that you can recommend Ioan, en espanol? Books and articles would be great, have a read enough already, but really curious about the situation just after the capture of Felix Gallardo up untill the time Calderon declares against the cartels.
Hey there Sunny. For contemporary journos, there is my compa Luis Chaparro, Oscar Balderas, Ricardo Ravelo, and Adela Navarro and the Zeta magazine crew among many others. Historically, my friend Javier Valdez, who write eight books and many fine articles, Diego Enrique Osorno, Alejandro Almazan, and the academic Luis Astorga is great. All best there.
Ioan thanks so much mate! Luis of course is a legend, started following him in late '21 for all things Sinaloa. Will check out the others for sure. I'm up here In Toronto and lived in Montreal. The cartels make a killing up here due to the distance and the risk. The majority of my friends from Mexico are from CDM or Monterrey, suffice to say they dont share same thoughts as someone from say Juarez, Tijuana or any the other places en la frontera or the places that straddle the Sierra Madre, gracias una vez mas y cuidate
That is very interesting Sanu. We don't hear much about the cartels in Canada but I am sure there are some fascinating leads there. All best and keep in touch friend.
Might have been you or Luis, in a podcast, that mentioned that Chicago acts as depot for the drugs that are going further east and onwards in to Canada, ie Toronto, Montreal
Its crazy to me how quickly and suddenly things can change in Mexico both geographically and as a matter of time. When I visited Puerto Vallarta locals swore on the citys safety and I felt completely at ease walking the streets in the middle of the night. But was warned not to travel on certain roads outside the city because of safety dangers. However visiting family just outside Mexico City about a 30 minute drive from the airport, I know i cannot venture out at night in the neighborhood my family stays in. I also visit Oaxaca frequently and at least in the places I go to I often feel shielded from the greater safety problems seen in other parts of the country. I think its just a testament to how large a country like Mexico really is. Just like the government cannot ensure complete safety in all corners of the country, organized crime on the same token has not been able to infiltrate the country in its entirety either. Although i guess you could argue it is not in their interest to disturb heavenly like touristy areas. Thanks for the insight!
Thanks much for the observations Roberto. Yes, it is crazy how things change - the relatively safe state of Guanajuato suddenly became ultra violent in a short time. It is harder but some states can also recover as well. All best and keep in touch Roberto.
One important aspect of your article was the dichotomy between a growing economy and the cartel violence. I think a perfect example in the past that may explain Mexico's situation is Miami, Florida in the 1980's. Flush with money from the expansion of Pablo Escobar's cocaine distribution and the beginnings of the Medellin cartel, that money fueled building construction and the establishment of businesses to launder the cash. Of course that underground economy provided jobs also. But Miami's economic growth was fueled by incredible violence. Mexico is in the same situation. US banks flushed with cash from laundering drug money investing cash in Mexico without too much government oversight and global development again without almost any restrictions. Corruption is deep through Mexico's government agencies. Tijuana is a good example of a modern developing city with the growing urban, global culture that is so admired by a new and thriving generation. But Tijuana is sitting on a violent volcano that always erupts in very violent episodes. Giant multi- national corporations thrive on this economic environment of unrestricted business to grow at whatever cost to the city, state or country they are doing business in. There was only one reason Wal-Mart expanded in Mexico and that was bribing the cartels to build their stores.
Yes, more great points Tom. Organized crime can be very costly but it can also create growth economically. I definitely need to do more stories on this economic aspect of the narco world.
Ha ha, indeed. It sounds positively porno. I was like, "what?" and I had to read through to find the culprit. Luckily, the elves seems to swipe in and fix it. Thanks much for pointing out and thanks so much for the support. (I may even get a copy editor one day. Quien sabe.) All best friend.
Mexico has dealt with violence since it's beginning as an independent country. Mexico's resiliency has been built up over decades and generations. With Mexico's various revolutions, people in Mexico have seen the repeated betrayal by those promising real change and land reform. I think that has created a sense of fatalism and blindness towards the corruption and violence. But there is an idea of justice and legitimate retribution that is still in the spirit of the Mexican psyche whether it is some law enforcement, military, political or ordinary citizens. The revolutionary upsurge in the early 1900's and 1960's including the massive uprising during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and in Culiacan, the Chiapas insurgency and many of the armed vigilante groups that have arisen against the cartels still show that desire for justice still lingers. The president of El Salvador is not only popular in El Salvador for his year long attack campaign against MS 13 and 18th Barrio Street gangs but also all through Central America, South American and Mexico. Unfortunately increasing drug use by Mexican citizens particularly younger citizens and the allure of the fantasy of living in the United States is making that spirit harder to find.
Fantastic analysis Tom. Great points. I totally agree, people have a complicated mentality of both resilience and fatalism yet also desire for social justice. More on the Bukele effect to come. All best there friend.
I can only imagine that like drug tolerance after months of use, the very same principle applies to cultural tolerance of hyper violence, especially since there are multiple generations of kids who are growing up on soil thats drenched in human blood.
Aztecs cut off heads upon sacrificial altars as ceremonial offerings to their Gods for good crops, healing of illnesses or just to make them happy...to avoid chaos(natural disasters)
Today the Sacrifices may serve in a very similar way, as offerings to a desired outcome,...one with no less an aspect of ceremonial violence,..one that has become commonplace, the status quo.
Thanks there Ancient Mariner. I think that is a true and apt comparison. There is also a case that in many countries we have become so far removed from death and that is also a strange case that we adapt to. But yes, people are being sacrificed on the temple of Mammon perhaps. Best there and keep in touch Bushy Haired.
The "normalness" of carrying on during and after violence occurs in many violent or war zones. I saw it in El Salvador during the war there, and also after gun violence in the California city where I live. It's a coping mechanism, yes, though also often an economic necessity. It doesn't mean there are not emotional and psychic costs that emerge in other contexts. Thanks for the excellent piece and continued reporting.
Great to hear from here John, I am big fan of your work. I am always curious about how today's violence in Mexico and Latin America compares to the civil wars and insurgencies of the twentieth century. I was too young to have seen those but very intrigued by them. I have heard at least in the Salvadoran civil war you could work with the guerrillas in a more straight forward way. With the narco war it's a weird non armed conflict armed conflict. Anyway, I appreciate all your insights here and stay in touch friend. Best.
390,000 deaths (murders) in 16 years in Mexico.
390,000 deaths (overdose) in 4 years in US.
We all continue on.
Crime pays.
Indeed my friend. The real tragedy that it can carry on with the level of death and it's business as usual. This level of overdose death in the United States though will perhaps have to cause a reaction.
Our President's son is a perfect example of the moral decay of this country.
A certainly sordid case. Why do think there is such an addiction problem in the US now friend?
We allow it.
Everybody is a victim, no personal responsibility.
We also only have 40,000 people committed to mental wards. In 1970 it was 400,000.
Thanks and good observations. I need to get more on that side for reporting on the addiction crisis. Cheers and saludos.
Not only do we allow it but we have promoted it with our unbelievable consumption of alcohol and legal drugs. Parents brag about how they raised their children to consume booze instead of drugs. We are taught quite early to medicate emotional and physical pain with drugs that create homicidal and suicidal side effects. Legal opioid drugs has fueled the overdose deaths. When Oxycodone became harder for doctors to prescribe, cost of Oxy exploded and heroin became the cheaper alternative and that was the beginning of the Jalisco cartel lacing heroin with fentanyl to gain a competitive edge against the Sinaloa cartel who were the main distributors of heroin in the United States.
By the way, it was the Governor Ronald Reagan in California who came up with the idea to reduce health costs by making the mentally ill out patients instead of wards of the state and treat them with some of the worst mind altering drugs you could take. That was the beginning of the drugged out, violent zombie homeless we have now roaming the streets in major cities.
Yes, it has been kind of ever decreasing circles in U.S. drug policy. But was that a pendulum swing from over handed putting people in mental hospitals to not enough care putting everyone on the street? And yes, terrible with Oxyodone. Best.
I think that at this point, most of the addiction problem is a long-term consequence of the Oxycodone era- the peak of which lasted around 15 years.
Between 1) supplies of Oxy--and all opioid pharmaceuticals--under much more stringent regulation, and with much less opportunity for diversion; and 2) more recognition of the hazards of opioids (particularly counterfeits with powerful synthetics as the main active ingredient) by young people (the main demographic recruited into recreational opioid use), the US addict population is already on the verge of falling. if it hasn't fallen already. But a large population of addicts remains, and they'll be struggling with the consequences, crises, and complications in future years. Perhaps another decade. Cold calculation indicates that the fatal overdose toll is likely to number in the tens of thousands for some time to come.
There may also be some recruitment of older adults to addiction from the most recent waves of homeless in California- working people who have found themselves priced out of the rental market. It used to be rare to find unhoused people in California who weren't either mentally ill or disabled, or who had not in some sense volunteered for it with personal decisions related to alcoholism or other drug abuse. In central California, like Sacramento, it was rare to find an employed person living out of their vehicle. Now that situation--once confined to coastal regions like Big Sur in vacation season, with the service workers living in campers and RVs- has become more and more common in other parts of the state. People losing their homes from wildfires and finding themselves without the means to rebuild have also contributed to the total.
Encampments of the unhoused can differ considerably. Some maintain an ethos about not tolerating hard drug dealing and other types of antisocial behavior. Others are a mess. It's always a struggle to maintain dignified standards of conduct and common decency in those situations. As a reaction to those circumstances, dysfunction is no challenge; keeping it together requires disciplined effort. But it's important to know that the newest cohort of the unhoused consists of individuals, couples, and families who have simply found other types of shelter to be unaffordable, even when gainfully employed.
Thanks much there DC Reade for this insightful and detailed comment. This would be a form of optimism in that overdoses reach a peak and go down, but let's see if this is really the case. The number of overdose deaths continue to be mind bogglingly tragic. All best there friend and great to have your voice here.
I view the overdose crisis as probably the most telling indicator of how much of a hold severe opioid dependency has over its users. The product has never been less reliable in terms of its potency and purity. The next time someone uses it, it could kill them. Yet few of the addicts view that situation as so intolerable that it induces them to quit.
I've learned from my researches that one of the most important features of addiction is the foreshortening- and eventual foreclosing- of the future time horizon. Hard drug addicts on the street not only experience foreshortening of the future time horizon of the most drastic sort, they experience something like its foreclosure. Their future time horizon extends only as far as the hours when they're getting off on the drugs they're addicted to, and once the effect begins to wear off, the curtain begins to ring down. So their future horizon typically extends no more than 12 hours ahead. If they're at a point where their supply is running out- more often than not the case- much of that time is spent in crisis mode.
The addicts also obtain a reward- a physical gratification, as close to instantaneous as it gets. A reward so direct that it's able to provide the illusion that little or nothing else is required- even eating and bathing are often viewed as activities that aren't worth the effort. In any event, those chores always take second place to the top priority: getting the next fix. The search mode and GPS of addicts is always set to planning for that destination. And no further.
That's why I favor forced inpatient treatment for dysfunctional street addicts- a form of incarceration with a focus of abstention and rehabilitation, directed at the population who would not be involved in criminal activity, were it not for their need to obtain the funds to purchase their supplies in the illicit marketplace. (A category distinct from a much smaller cohort: criminals who happen to like drugs, and who would be inclined to engage in chronic criminality and antisocial behavior even without a drug dependency.)
I define a 'dysfunctional street addict' as someone whose addiction has derailed their life to the point where they're violating laws other than those that criminalize the possession of forbidden substances- i.e., laws intended to preserve local public order (trespassing on private property; blocking the sidewalk; aggressive panhandling; scofflaw responses to citations; failure to appear in court) or public health (laws against discarding hazardous waste, like needles; laws against public urination and defecation, particularly the latter; trash dumps near encampments.) Particularly if the offender is a recividist.
All of the specified offenses are misdemeanors; the laws are already on the books to decree arrests and trial in criminal court, and to sentence offenders to jail terms (often of up to one year.) Those laws should be employed in a concerted fashion, in order to get the dysfunctional population off the streets and into inpatient rehabilitation as a necessary component of their incarceration.
Tom you’re absolutely on point. Alfred McCoy’s research on the CIA and their Opium & Heroin transport infrastructure & Hank Alberelli’s deep dive of MKultra in ‘A Terrible Mistake’ both covered the long game impacts in depth. Jonathan Ott has written on this topic since the 1980’s.
Here is a great article from way back in 2001. Check it out if youre not already familiar.
- https://joergo.de/ottint_e/
Classic works
As far as treatment & rehabilitation, there must be as many options as possible. Some people can live extremely succesful lives using their drug of choice. So make the drug easily available in a well informed and easy way. Ensure the drug of choice is high quality & that the user is informed of purity and dosage. Another issue as far as Opiates. Heroin is easier to “kick” than methadone based on the fact that Heroin comes from a water based plant source-its sweeter on the human body than synthetic Methadone. Takes 5-10 days to complete acute heroin withdrawal, the worst of it is over by day 7. Methadone takes MONTHS of agonizing hell!
So why not allow people who want off Methadone to taper using heroin? Its far better on the Soul.
Yes total abstinence Treatment should be optional, yet not the ONLY option. I sincerely believe that choice serves humanity far more soundly that force. I know it does, personally.
Interesting points Bushy Haired. I need to do more reporting on this. It seems though that 100,000 + overdose deaths a year is really catastrophic levels that shouldn't be happening.
I agree, sadly those deaths could have been stopped, why they continue not being stopped? that answer comes from this antiquated prohibitionist system supported by profits from the war on drugs that certain people use.
The systems of drug prohibition are so poisonous & polluting that the whole world has been blinded by it. There are states that see any change in drug laws as anti-american, anti-freedom(thats what they yoke it to) Those who support the dismantling of the DEA & Drug Prohibition are considered “Terrorists”.
That whole “drug terrorist hat” has been placed upon many heads over the decades and its been happening much longer especially in South America & Mexico.
Imagine what things might be like had the DEA never existed? especially in regard to the 1970’s when the DEA ruined the opportunity to work with a truly incredible natural drug products option in Mexico & South America. One where these countries could’ve worked together to merge in resource trade options especially around Natural Products for everyones benefit. Instead we missed the opportunity because of the Military Industrial Complex and the Plutocrats who run it.. they DONT want safe supply, or decriminalization or legalization and regulation.
Prohibition is directly responsible for those 100,000+ deaths per year, & for the billions in profits made at the cost of human life. Prohibition continues to support the US plutocracy & its infrastructure thats become the downfall of human civilization...
The DEA is the minor league compared to the CIA who has used drugs as their major weapon to dominate the politics of countries they involve themselves in and to provide additional funds outside of US budget funding.. From allowing the mafia to flourish in Italy after World War II, assisting in the distribution of heroin from Turkey and France, their experimentation drug program MK-Ultra to create their ideal citizens and accomplices, allowing the Hmongs to distribute heroin from Laos through Vietnam with a side trip to US soldier's arms and then to the United States, the establishment of crack cocaine in the United States to finance anti-Sandinista groups in Nicaragua and the distribution of heroin from Afghanistan, shows high level of destruction this agency has created. CIA can be attributed as a major reason for drug addiction in the United States. In a way, the DEA has just been a tenacle of the CIA.
Addiction, in my experience, is more tethered to harm caused by drug prohibition policy than any “moral decay”, unless that decay is inherently the laws of Prohibition.
The US plutocracy not only supports hyping addiction it does this while creating ineffective solutions for it--by building more prisons, more useless treatment institutions & sober only rehabs & of course that in turn causes more OD deaths! Thats the Circle of 4,...Prisons, Detox, Treatment & Death, thats how we deal with certain people who use certain drugs in the USA.
US rehab-treatment models & UA tests are a billion dollar a year industry! a racket. People arrested for possession are forced into Drug courts for a minimum of 1-5 years of insanity. cages to suffer acute withdrawal in jail, thats cruel & unusual punishment! CIA used(uses?) acute opioid withdrawal as a torture technique for “Terrorists”.
Many US circuit drug court programs use jail time to force detox. To Force a drug user into a unwanted acute withdrawal is cruel & unusual punishment. Upon release all the citizens wants to do is get high to cope with the trauma of being tortured by a judges sadistic orders!
There is a lot I need to learn about addiction and treatment in the United States. How do you think rehab and treatment should be friend?
The reaction seems to be “drone bomb the cartels”.
Sadly yes. I need a piece on that as well. Best there MarkyV.
One idea in the early 1980’s suggested no less by Mushroom Millionaire PAUL STAMETS & his buddy Dr. ANDREW WEIL was to Aerial spray Mycoherbicides all over S.America & Mexico. The Product was a patented Mycoherbicide strain made by Paul Stamets-funded by DARPA. Mycoherbicides would be sprayed from helicopters all over the “Evil” Coca plants & Poppy field plantations throughout South America & Mexico, Of course this was to be done without consideration to the fact that these Mycoherbicides kill all plant and food crops as well & the Mycelium stays active in the soil for decades if not centuries (no studies showed the long term potential devastation such a program would cause) making a kind of repeat of what happened to the people in South east Asia-Vietnam & Cambodia, from America Military usage of Agent Orange, Agent Blue & Agent White. Few people today even know what Agent Blue & Agent White were (Food Crop & Livestock destroyers, poisons!) this was all out evil on the part of the USA.
Thankfully Paul Stamets & Andrew Weil’s Insane Mycoherbicides proposal for eradicating Cocaine & Heroin production was absolutely stopped in its tracks by decent thinking researchers like Tim Plowman, Jeremy Bigwood, & Jonathan Ott & several others. Keep that in mind when you see Paul Stamets on the Psychedelic band wagon selling “his” wares to the public & to the highest bidder of the DOD & DARPA.
Interesting, thanks for that insight, I will look that one up. Best there Bushy Haired.
The resilience of Mexico really is something. Especially when you factor in what seems to be some pretty ruthless American realpolitik over the long decades since before the US Marines visited the halls of Montezuma.
That said, I cant help but think something has been lost, in the creation of a population able to take such things in stride and be open for business that same day.
Thanks there Matt. Yes, it's an interesting point. I have met many people and think how do they stand up to these tragedies that have happened and carry on. I agree some people can lose something when they live in extreme violence. On the flipside, perhaps in the US and Europe we have become too aware of being traumatized by everything. It's one to thing about though. All best there and stay in touch friend.
Hi, thanks for another insightful piece!
I wanted to ask you about the grafitti photo in the beginning of the article... Why did you choose it and how it is related to the article? I'm just curious, since I know very well where it is located and never thought about it twice, until now.
Hey there R. Thanks much for your thought and great question. I guess you a are a fellow resident of this fine city.
I am a fan of mural style graffiti and often take pictures when I see them. As I was looking through my photos for one for the piece and I just thought it fitted, like she is a metaphor of the paradoxes of Mexico, like with some pain in her eyes but she still looks beautiful. I guess it's just quite a catchy image as well. All best there friend and keep in touch.
Any go to Mexican journalists that you can recommend Ioan, en espanol? Books and articles would be great, have a read enough already, but really curious about the situation just after the capture of Felix Gallardo up untill the time Calderon declares against the cartels.
Hey there Sunny. For contemporary journos, there is my compa Luis Chaparro, Oscar Balderas, Ricardo Ravelo, and Adela Navarro and the Zeta magazine crew among many others. Historically, my friend Javier Valdez, who write eight books and many fine articles, Diego Enrique Osorno, Alejandro Almazan, and the academic Luis Astorga is great. All best there.
Ioan thanks so much mate! Luis of course is a legend, started following him in late '21 for all things Sinaloa. Will check out the others for sure. I'm up here In Toronto and lived in Montreal. The cartels make a killing up here due to the distance and the risk. The majority of my friends from Mexico are from CDM or Monterrey, suffice to say they dont share same thoughts as someone from say Juarez, Tijuana or any the other places en la frontera or the places that straddle the Sierra Madre, gracias una vez mas y cuidate
That is very interesting Sanu. We don't hear much about the cartels in Canada but I am sure there are some fascinating leads there. All best and keep in touch friend.
Might have been you or Luis, in a podcast, that mentioned that Chicago acts as depot for the drugs that are going further east and onwards in to Canada, ie Toronto, Montreal
Could be either or both of us but very true that Chicago is a hub and includes Canadian as well as East Coast cities as its destination...
Its crazy to me how quickly and suddenly things can change in Mexico both geographically and as a matter of time. When I visited Puerto Vallarta locals swore on the citys safety and I felt completely at ease walking the streets in the middle of the night. But was warned not to travel on certain roads outside the city because of safety dangers. However visiting family just outside Mexico City about a 30 minute drive from the airport, I know i cannot venture out at night in the neighborhood my family stays in. I also visit Oaxaca frequently and at least in the places I go to I often feel shielded from the greater safety problems seen in other parts of the country. I think its just a testament to how large a country like Mexico really is. Just like the government cannot ensure complete safety in all corners of the country, organized crime on the same token has not been able to infiltrate the country in its entirety either. Although i guess you could argue it is not in their interest to disturb heavenly like touristy areas. Thanks for the insight!
Thanks much for the observations Roberto. Yes, it is crazy how things change - the relatively safe state of Guanajuato suddenly became ultra violent in a short time. It is harder but some states can also recover as well. All best and keep in touch Roberto.
One important aspect of your article was the dichotomy between a growing economy and the cartel violence. I think a perfect example in the past that may explain Mexico's situation is Miami, Florida in the 1980's. Flush with money from the expansion of Pablo Escobar's cocaine distribution and the beginnings of the Medellin cartel, that money fueled building construction and the establishment of businesses to launder the cash. Of course that underground economy provided jobs also. But Miami's economic growth was fueled by incredible violence. Mexico is in the same situation. US banks flushed with cash from laundering drug money investing cash in Mexico without too much government oversight and global development again without almost any restrictions. Corruption is deep through Mexico's government agencies. Tijuana is a good example of a modern developing city with the growing urban, global culture that is so admired by a new and thriving generation. But Tijuana is sitting on a violent volcano that always erupts in very violent episodes. Giant multi- national corporations thrive on this economic environment of unrestricted business to grow at whatever cost to the city, state or country they are doing business in. There was only one reason Wal-Mart expanded in Mexico and that was bribing the cartels to build their stores.
Yes, more great points Tom. Organized crime can be very costly but it can also create growth economically. I definitely need to do more stories on this economic aspect of the narco world.
"exhibut" is a pretty fun typo. It sounds like a new word that accurately describes 30% of Instagram's content.
Ha ha, indeed. It sounds positively porno. I was like, "what?" and I had to read through to find the culprit. Luckily, the elves seems to swipe in and fix it. Thanks much for pointing out and thanks so much for the support. (I may even get a copy editor one day. Quien sabe.) All best friend.
objective analysis and good write-up
Thanks much and all best there Rengaraj
Mexico has dealt with violence since it's beginning as an independent country. Mexico's resiliency has been built up over decades and generations. With Mexico's various revolutions, people in Mexico have seen the repeated betrayal by those promising real change and land reform. I think that has created a sense of fatalism and blindness towards the corruption and violence. But there is an idea of justice and legitimate retribution that is still in the spirit of the Mexican psyche whether it is some law enforcement, military, political or ordinary citizens. The revolutionary upsurge in the early 1900's and 1960's including the massive uprising during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and in Culiacan, the Chiapas insurgency and many of the armed vigilante groups that have arisen against the cartels still show that desire for justice still lingers. The president of El Salvador is not only popular in El Salvador for his year long attack campaign against MS 13 and 18th Barrio Street gangs but also all through Central America, South American and Mexico. Unfortunately increasing drug use by Mexican citizens particularly younger citizens and the allure of the fantasy of living in the United States is making that spirit harder to find.
Fantastic analysis Tom. Great points. I totally agree, people have a complicated mentality of both resilience and fatalism yet also desire for social justice. More on the Bukele effect to come. All best there friend.
I can only imagine that like drug tolerance after months of use, the very same principle applies to cultural tolerance of hyper violence, especially since there are multiple generations of kids who are growing up on soil thats drenched in human blood.
Aztecs cut off heads upon sacrificial altars as ceremonial offerings to their Gods for good crops, healing of illnesses or just to make them happy...to avoid chaos(natural disasters)
Today the Sacrifices may serve in a very similar way, as offerings to a desired outcome,...one with no less an aspect of ceremonial violence,..one that has become commonplace, the status quo.
Thanks there Ancient Mariner. I think that is a true and apt comparison. There is also a case that in many countries we have become so far removed from death and that is also a strange case that we adapt to. But yes, people are being sacrificed on the temple of Mammon perhaps. Best there and keep in touch Bushy Haired.
The "normalness" of carrying on during and after violence occurs in many violent or war zones. I saw it in El Salvador during the war there, and also after gun violence in the California city where I live. It's a coping mechanism, yes, though also often an economic necessity. It doesn't mean there are not emotional and psychic costs that emerge in other contexts. Thanks for the excellent piece and continued reporting.
Great to hear from here John, I am big fan of your work. I am always curious about how today's violence in Mexico and Latin America compares to the civil wars and insurgencies of the twentieth century. I was too young to have seen those but very intrigued by them. I have heard at least in the Salvadoran civil war you could work with the guerrillas in a more straight forward way. With the narco war it's a weird non armed conflict armed conflict. Anyway, I appreciate all your insights here and stay in touch friend. Best.