If there were no Americans that use drugs, would there still be drug cartels in Mexico?

Question by Bit of Honey: If there were no Americans that use drugs, would there still be drug cartels in Mexico?
I’m sure you all have heard that American drug users are to blame for the drug violence in Mexico. In fact, some coward who doesn’t accept emails sent me a nasty email informing me there would be no drug violence or cartels in Mexico if not for the American drug users. Do you believe that is true? ( If you don’t feel like reading the articles, they describe the increase of drug use in Mexico, as a result of enforcement of our border with Mexico.)

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico — Carlos Antonio López started using crack at age 11 to kill the pain of his mother’s death.
“I started with marijuana, but after a while it didn’t fill me up anymore,” he says. “Then I started on crack. You get obsessed, you can’t think about anything else.”

Now 18, López is in his sixth stint in rehab.

Not so long ago, stories like López’s were unusual in Mexico, where drug addiction had never been a widespread problem. These days, the country is dealing with an unprecedented epidemic of drug use that is partly a result of better U.S. border enforcement, experts say.

The new border fence and intensified patrols by both Mexican and U.S. federal agents have made it harder for Mexican cartels to get drugs into the USA. As a result, more narcotics remain in Mexico where they are sold to local consumers, says Marcela López Cabrera, director of the Monte Fenix clinic in Mexico City, which trains drug counselors. http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oG7l0hDx5NG_0AuS5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1MmFjMTFpBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA1NNRTAxM18xNTc-/SIG=12ik1fhbf/EXP=1293901985/**http%3a//www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-22-mexaddicts_N.htm

So, if the drugs can’t get into the US, the dealers will just sell the drugs to their own people, right? It looks as if we are on some level doing our part by enforcement (barely) on the border. Could this mean if there were no American addicts, the cartels would find someone else to sell the drugs to?

The rest of Mexico is starting to feel much the same way. Once mainly a smuggling corridor for drugs heading to the United States, Mexico is grappling with the effects of a fast-rising addiction rate as relatively cheap versions of cocaine and methamphetamine find a market south of the border. Experts say the supply has increased as U.S. enforcement on the border has made it more difficult to move illegal drugs north.

A recent government survey of drug use shows Mexicans are trying drugs, and getting hooked, earlier in life and more frequently. The number of people who said they had tried drugs rose by more than a fourth, to 4.5 million, since the last survey in 2002. More than 460,000 Mexicans are addicted to drugs, a 51% jump from six years ago, according to preliminary results of the survey released last month.

Those tallies are undoubtedly too low. Officials said safety considerations prevented them from querying residents in two key drug-trafficking states, Sinaloa and Baja California, and hindered data collection in three others.

Growing consumption here presents a difficult new front in President Felipe Calderon’s war on drug traffickers, declared in December 2006. There are signs that the street trade, known as narcomenudeo, is adding to overall drug violence that has killed more than 3,000 people nationwide this year. Analysts say the well-armed gangs that have fought each other for control of key international drug-smuggling routes are battling over the market in Mexico as well.

The slaying of the mayor of a resort town outside Mexico City this month was in part linked to his resistance to local drug sales, authorities said. Media reports said 12 men whose headless bodies turned up in the Yucatan peninsula in August may have been killed as part of a narcomenudeo turf war.

Mexican leaders, who for many years have pointed an accusing finger toward the United States when talking about drug use, now acknowledge their nation’s own problem. http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oG7l0hDx5NG_0AvS5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1bHNsYzFsBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMwRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA1NNRTAxM18xNTc-/SIG=13d875sb4/EXP=1293901985/**http%3a//www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexaddict15-2008oct15,0,4364637.story

They blame us for the invasion of the illegal aliens into the US; they blame us for the drug cartels’ violence; they blame us even for the poverty in Mexico. I guess we’re to blame for the government corruption, too.

Best answer:

Answer by Casey Forrest
i didn’t read your LOOOOOOONG post.

but to your main question.

yes. drug cartels sell to many countries, as well as their own.

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