Those who have been hoping for a new direction in Mexico\u2019s approach to the ultra-violent drug cartels were heartened by president-elect Andr\u00e9s Manuel Lopez Obrador\u2019s announcement that his interior minister will be Olga S\u00e1nchez Cordero.<\/p>\n
The interior ministry, called\u00a0Gobernaci\u00f3n<\/a>, is responsible for all domestic affairs, including security matters. S\u00e1nchez Cordero, a former associate justice on Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court, is most well-known for her\u00a0vocal stance<\/a>\u00a0in favor of legalized cannabis.<\/p>\n Upon being named,\u00a0S\u00e1nchez Cordero\u00a0told a reporter from Milenio<\/a>\u00a0newspaper: \u201cI\u2019m going to propose to Andr\u00e9s Manuel, at the right time, the depenalization of marijuana, in planting, harvesting, transport, medicinal and recreational use.\u201d She posed this as part of a program of \u201ctransitional justice\u201d for the country, with a potential \u201camnesty\u201d for drug offenders.<\/p>\n She made similar comments in an\u00a0interview with Radio W<\/a>, saying, \u201cCanada has already\u00a0depenalized, and various states of the United States have depenalized. What are we thinking? Why do we go on killing when other countries are depenalizing? We are going to try to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n She also wrote in an\u00a0opinion piece for Milenio<\/a>\u00a0in June: \u201cThe world war on drugs has failed. Legislating on the basis of more criminal punishment and permanent confrontation does nothing to contribute to peace. Violence is not fought with violence, as L\u00f3pez Obrador rightly points out.\u201d<\/p>\n The country quickly responded to S\u00e1nchez Cordero\u2019s appointment with encouragement, and legal cannabis quickly became a prevalent topic in the Mexican news.<\/p>\n Now, Mexican media are abuzz with the recommendation of a\u00a0global industry expert<\/a>, Saul Kaye, that Mexico could develop a \u201csuccessful business\u201d of medical marijuana cultivation. Kaye, of the Israel-based canna-industry equity firm\u00a0iCAN<\/a>, is an advisor to the Israeli Knesset on cannabis policy reform. He\u00a0told Milenio<\/a>\u00a0that Mexico has \u201cideal conditions\u201d for cannabis cultivation, and drew a comparison to Colombia, which now has a burgeoning\u00a0legal cultivation industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n AMLO himself has been more guarded in his comments, but is still offering some encouragement to legalization advocates. In his victory speech,\u00a0he said<\/a>: \u201cThe failed strategy of combating insecurity and violence will change. More than through the use of force, we will tend to the causes that give rise to insecurity and violence.\u201d He said his team will immediately begin consulting with human rights groups, religious leaders and\u00a0the United Nations to develop a \u201cplan for reconciliation and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n On the campaign trail, AMLO had actually\u00a0broached opening a dialogue<\/a>\u00a0with the cartels. At a December campaign stop in Hidalgo, he\u00a0told a reporter<\/a>: \u201cWe can dialogue with everybody, we have to seek dialogue and we have to seek the way to end the war and guarantee peace.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the terms of what would be up for discussion were never clearly defined, bringing some of those now caught in the contraband narco-economy into a legalized cannabis sector immediately presents itself.<\/p>\n Narco-terror in the Tarahumara Mexico\u2019s peasant farmers, locally referred to as campesinos, increasingly find themselves trapped between the cartels and security forces. The heartland of cannabis cultivation has long been the remote and rugged Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in northern Chihuahua state. Indigenous Tarahumara\u00a0campesinos living in the Sierra Tarahumara region of the mountain range often can only make enough to survive by growing cannabis and opium, generally inter-cropping them on the same plot, hidden in small canyons. And too often the\u00a0caciques\u00a0\u2014 local enforcers for the cartels \u2014 give them the infamous choice of\u00a0\u00a0plata o plomo<\/em>\u00a0(silver or lead): either grow for narcos and get paid, or refuse to and get shot. But of course, cultivating for the\u00a0caciques\u00a0inevitably draws police and military forces.<\/p>\n Just days before the July 1 election came the latest news in the\u00a0ongoing and fruitless war<\/a>\u00a0against illegal crops in the Sierra Tarahumara. Chihuahua state police\u00a0announced the destruction<\/a>\u00a0of 15 \u201cnarco-encampments,\u201d where cannabis and opium crops were being grown by an indigenous community in the mountains.<\/p>\n The Tarahumara\u00a0campesinos\u00a0are also caught between warring narco-gangs, of course. Last year saw sporadic violence in the Sierra, said to be related to a struggle for control of local cultivation between La L\u00ednea, a gang loyal to the Ju\u00e1rez Cartel, and Gente Nueva, enforcers for the rival Sinaloa C\u00e1rtel. Selling to one gang made the\u00a0campesinos targets for the other. One\u00a0particularly bloody shoot-out<\/a>\u00a0last July left 25 dead at the pueblo of Las Varas, Madero municipality.<\/p>\n Even if AMLO\u2019s administration embraces legalization as a way out of the crisis, a further challenge will be to implement the new policy in a way that brings some equity to these indigenous and\u00a0campesino\u00a0communities that have long borne the brunt of Mexico\u2019s narco-violence.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think Mexico will legalize cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Mexico Considers Legal Cannabis As Solution to Narco Crisis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Those who have been hoping for a new direction in Mexico\u2019s approach to the ultra-violent drug cartels were heartened by president-elect Andr\u00e9s Manuel Lopez Obrador\u2019s announcement that his interior minister will be Olga S\u00e1nchez Cordero. The interior ministry, called\u00a0Gobernaci\u00f3n, is responsible for all domestic affairs, including security matters. S\u00e1nchez Cordero,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4927,50,2121,216,4928,4929,4930,4552,265,81,4931],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27796,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27795\/revisions\/27796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Dialogue\u2019 With the Cartels?<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Mexico Considers Legal Cannabis As Solution to Narco Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"