Matter to. Aljazeera. Hi im femi oke a and youre in the street and im really could be today can Legal Marijuana put an end to mexicos drug cartels join our conversation you can tweet us at 8 a stream of your comments and i live each chat and you may well be in the story. Mexico is set to fully legalize marijuana that some proponents of cannabis believe will help rampant violence but critics say drug cartels would start trafficking of the drugs or move on to know in drug related crimes like human smuggling and fuel sext we godless Mexico Supreme Court has ruled the prohibition of marijuana violated the constitution and ordered lawmakers to come up with and let you slip the framework and the deadline to do so is this week so joining us from mexico to discuss this and can current one i asked her as landau is a lawyer and secretary general for Mexico United against crime in mexico city deborah but now low she is a journalist and founder of mexico reporter also in mexico city you know im grillo hes a journalist and author of a lark oh inside mexicos criminal insurgency welcome everyone to this stream now weve got so much feedback on this because emotions are high people have opinions about this but i want to start our conversation with someone who is involved in this intimately this is Ali Holmes Romans razzo hes a professor in mexico and he also advised the ministry of interior. On the revision process for this bill have a listen to what he told the string Mexican Congress is about to regulate marijuana forced under a court order to change the law in order to move away from prohibition after 5 years almost congress is finally moving along towards regulation this is a huge huge huge move its very important for Mexico Mexico has been a mess in the sort of drug war for the last 13 years which has taken homicide rates beyond any historical limit that weve had had ever since the revolution so it is very very important that we do regulate drugs in order to move away from that very violent base so while he causes a huge huge move for is that how youre feeling as a well what are your thoughts. Well im a little biased because im very close to oleksandr so were part of the same gang if you will that has been advocating for a change in policy in mexico we were among the 1st ones to actually advocate for the Supreme Court ruling that eventually also isis to get personal permits for very want to consumption and demand we are convinced that the quicker we move away from troy vision the better off we will be the reality is that violence in mexico all of these a. Result of many factors but one of the most important one is the presence of organized crime that it was very evident has been there evident for a while and of course that is weeks events we had 3 very significant events and may try counting at all any cell or group precisely what type of any do we have in front of us how well organized they are and how financially you know important their resources may be so on as we change that logic we will see those events repeated themselves over and over again and i think people are fed up with violence and we deserve Something Better than being witnesses to an increased level of. You know challenging the state challenging the government or in some cases replacing a state such as the situation where living in mexico its a real value to one for people who are outside of moscow not feeling or have the telephone the fake news thats happening those 3 events i quickly want to teens will want. We had basically 2 events where policemen were killed every truck out and then subsequently got it off and thats i wonder what might have brought a lot more coverage with a known outside of mexico was a failed attempt to initially capture a chapel son and it will be the one day and go see how the organized crime reacted they actually were able to seize a cd that we actually use you know on forces families etc and by effectively extorting pressure they obtain their release of the sun and they can be defeated you know the effort to impose a you know order of justice so we also have a rule of law theres a period you know a few hours because of the slice of the opponent that for the minute you know you need that one was going to be you know in our conversation you had questions you had a meeting of questions what was i go out i mean i am im a big i dont think found of legalization and them and eggs to the preservation era i think my and my curiosity is 1st of all whether he thinks that there will be the end of a type that was set a deadline that is getting ahead but also i have concerns as to you have back to its utilizing marijuana areas into a. In stopping violence just to stay with a fast one fast focus i think thats thats really important that because we have you have a deadline of on there is a deadline. Yes im very hopeful that you know i share i share the sort of a question but i also share the fact that we have in front of a golden opportunity to finally deliver on what the government has suffered mary in mind that the current government controls congress so the only thing that is really required is political will they dont need to negotiate they dont need to talk to anybody else they dont need to act and deliver on their promises and this particular problem is included in the National Development plan so its basically part of their agenda that we big question here is whether the president will ultimately controls everything today is sympathetic and actually calling site without agenda so that we will know in a matter of a few days and if he doesnt deliver then we know that we dont have you know symmetry between what is being said and what is being done. So you know i want to bring you into the conversation here because when we asked the question to her Online Community will legalizing marijuana help reduce violence in mexico we got back several answers this one stuck out to us this is all of our shuffle says maybe 20 years ago it might have what do you think of the why now when the fact that this is a little too late. Why was that all he said about 20 years ago can drop cartels were not as powerful were not as violent as they are today 20 more years i mean they could be making. Say 30000000000. 00 every year city drugs to americans plus the stuff they do in mexico so over 20 years thats like you know 603000000. 00 whos going to that theyre buying drugs from the states that training their 5 heavy weaponry we see the violence topic today in mexico but i am still completely supportive of. One in this endeavor i do not think it will likely with use of violence in the short the problem is the drug cartels already practically all the heroin they can already they are trafficking all the crystal meth they have already on with all the cocaine in both human smuggling and if you go to the United States right now are documented you have to pay money to the mexican cartels to do that. Mexico has to deal with this problem of drug cartels who are taking chunks of the country and what we saw on sunday that was mentioned was a 100 drug Cartel Hit Man rising up and taking a major city a 100 guys with guns which classic olds were spiffed the catalyst to if you really would reduce the power from them then you need to start to think about legalizing some drugs however president Lopez Obrador i think is confusing this argument about ending the war on drugs the idea of ending the war on drugs is to take money away from these groups not to surrender to these groups and allow these kind of actions the house of 7 this is when you look i fancy you know 2nd so hand about saying i didnt just legalizing maulana will help mexico with a drunk on tell and drug go ahead you have. I mean there are there is some basic economics in this in the argument which i wish my 2 colleagues will already know but marijuana has long stopped being the cash cow that it was the cartels 20 years ago you know as weve seen state level legalization happen in the United States a black market continues to exist and mexico used to be the biggest supplier of illegal mar on the 2 americans but as you can now buy your illegal weed of all strength and sizes and flavors in the u. S. The demand for matt meagher up from mexico has gone down i took a brief look at the customs and Border Patrol see just before we came on live in 2013 i was teasing or going to 1000000 pounds of marijuana at the u. S. Borders per year and thats dropped to a quarter of a 1000000 this year so you know as you mention these are wholly Drug Trafficking organizations and increasingly were also seeing a drop in the in the demand for heroin paste and theres been a sperry very important switch to synthetics both in terms of what the Drug Trafficking organizations are producing and what people are consuming not talking about spencer now which is killing more americans in the United States than any other drug im talking about methamphetamine which is a huge hillary ited states and increasingly a problem in mexico and this is where a lot of the organizations are stunt focus their energies are in terms of drugs as well as obviously cocaine but but marijuana has long been. And probably the least important part their portfolio so i feel like ok lets take those revenues away from them and thats grey and like like you know and i absolutely support the end of prohibition of ahead with any of your ass taps there and you can regulate it but but just marijuana i think its not even going to make a dent im sorry im not a pessimist or exams or virals i becomes a buoy bigger than those i mean. This is a 1st step towards regularizing over regulating all drugs i think what we shouldnt just do this is that we need to open to discussion and maybe one is a 1st step but by definition i mean anything that we leave in the context of prohibition is something that they organized crime will be very happy to organize and to keep for themselves so the discussion here doesnt end with what he want it starts with what he wants and he should go onto every single substance the state should have never relinquished control of this substances as it does for example regulate tobacco or alcohol or medicine it needs to regulate everything because anything that the state does not regulate it is regulated but its a real it regulated by you are going to strike which then fuels their all their activities by monopolizing the economy of the market so there you see those funds to diversify into other very significant activities you know i was referring to so they they dont need to leverage their rights are quite devoted have been diverted what we need to stop is their economic power that allows them to have so much dominance you know all of those other activities and body one i get is a 1st step so its a long term process we take and vacates to get to where we are today you dont take a few years to improve things but unless we start working in that direction well just see more dramatic events like those in the last week. Im glad you raised that deborah in the 1st place because so many people are in line are i thinking the same thing this is james whos watching live in you tube he seems has laughed out loud its the its the cocaine that is worth the money and the end that it means another person waiting and watching life and as the big problem is really not associated with marijuana its more like methamphetamines and cocaine so several people on the same wavelength but i fear your answer to that one so keeping that in mind i want to play a video comment from someone else this is lightest mccormick shes the chair in mexico us for lesions at a university here in the u. S. Syracuse and you know i dont give this to you heres her thought. The decriminalization of marijuana in mexico wont actually do much to alleviate the current security crisis south of the border the majority of drugs are actually consumed by those outside of mexico and tellingly the United States and on top of that the decriminalization of marijuana doesnt address issues of corruption impunity and we saw those on display this past week in mexico with a series of massacres in places such as and truck on and get randall and most telling in the capture and subsequent release of the son of the chopper guzman in the streets of korea kind in seen alone on thursday so all of this goes to show that the stew criminalization is basically a bandaid and it doesnt address the root causes of whats driving mexico to be so violent today you know and what do you make of that and how to then address the root causes of this so i differ with somebody whos ideas are we have to remember that marijuana even if the amount of marijuana going to the United States has been reduced we still have. Reduced by drug cartels go to the United States as we speak so there is still people who are buying cannabis by we in texas you pay 20. 00 for that 20. 00 go to a drug cartel that body is going to mexico that is used to buy guns that is used to pay off fast the ins look carried out horrific murder and i mean weve all heard the numbers but the humanitarian catastrophe is what you have mass graves with 250 bodies where you have many regular parents crying that quantified that this appeared to good because the capacity needs to be addressed now to study that which is a band that i do agree with its not going to solve all the problems this is a major difficult long. Crisis to deal with but you have to start somewhere so if you do that i am i dont know if. Ok look if you talk about corruption you have to deal with corruption would you do with corruption by taking away the drug money if the drug cartels are getting lets say 30000000000. 00 a year from selling drugs americans you know we dont really notice that estimate them that huge amount of money to bribe Police Officers to bribe politicians so again you fight corruption by the same policy which one to reduce the black market drugs at the same time with you know rehab programs for americans who are taking heroin were taking crystal meth who is spending again. Every conversation he had about us i had that mike i had. I mean i agree with you and on to a certain extent but you know what i would argue is that the drug cartels in mexico are aggressive aggressive capitalist organizations and one thing that i actually been impressed by last 2 years is how they recognized the Market Opportunity that the synthetic fuel expansion was off so what you see yes marijuana is still around the stream for them but its small and they have to prove themselves absolutely capable of adapting to changes in demand for drugs so i think they will quite easily replace any in any readily seems a marijuana secondly i would argue and again im im citing things that was that was that. This has to be a bilateral that when you look at the violence thats playing out in mexico yes its domestic market to recreational drugs this grown but legalizing drugs on this side of the border is only going to be you know its only part what has to be a huge bilateral effort if the United States doesnt start moving towards legalizing tokay methamphetamine heroin then those products will remain in there you know the high levels of demand that they are today so i would say its a bandaid but i notice that interest is this is a small step of a very high price. But im very certain small step is better than nothing at what youve said before you true in the sense the u. S. Has not really is already working in that direction so why should you expect them not to part with us 30 states have some way of regulating marijuana in some cases you know were were we have no hard data supports the fact that that is a good look a lot of the oregon watching very good information as to why it is now being dealt with as what it should have been all over time which is related problem not a safety problem which returned or converted those into by prohibiting goods which. You know to someone who doesnt have the time to explain or understand this this is very similar to alcohol prohibition and i know there are some critics that say you know its different but the very basics are very similar and nobody would dispute with me that the u. S. Global group vision was a good decision it was actually a devastating one and very bad work well this is very similar proven growth any benefit for anyone except were going to explode so the minute we have a gun we read a bill to a different direction i think i think mexico also needs to move towards a change in culture and something because mexico is a very concerted society and we do have this sort of criminalize ation and marginalize ation drugs and i think preservation is a very very important step towards that deborah as that culture changes there is a question about what to do with those who are left behind namely farmers i want to share a video comment we got from someone who wrote this piece her name is zahra and the headline of this piece you can see where she stands mexicos historic opportunity to get cannabis right and she sent us this video comment have a listen hi my name is our snap from instinct in mexico this week the Mexican Senate is debating how to regulate cannabis and this will include 3 access routes cultivation for personal use which has been recognized by the Supreme Court. Cultivation in association and a regulated market which must put at the center the communities that have cultivated illegally and that must now have the opportunity to translate to a regulated legal market using social justice and reparations to change the conditions of our country so how best to center those communities that she talked about. I think thats been one of the fundamental tension in this in writing this bill too is trying to bring in structures and institutions that are going to bring in the impoverished farmers and the and the humble farmers in the mountains to few years have survived on marijuana into cultivation that to me is is a key part of making this work offering them alternatives to be part of this new legal industry. Which will its yet to be seen whether thats been written into the bill that would be one of my concerns last time i was in amounts cinelerra which midgley was and better a farmers were telling me that they they could bear this out of marijuana that they were growing. I would i would i would bring out another concept we were talking about a cultural barriers and the like and i would d