3. Legalizing marijuana could bring peace to the U

A  recent study by Mexican think tank Mexican Competitiveness Institute estimated that marijuana legalization in Washington, Colorado and Oregon would cut cartel profits by a stunning 30%. Oregon’s legalization initiative did not pass, but even with legal weed in CO and WA, the cartels could lose as much as 20% in profits. Assuming Mexican cartels earn more than $6 billion a year from drug smuggling to the US, the study estimated that legalization in Colorado would cost the cartels an estimated $1.425 billion, compared to $1.372 billion in Washington and $1.839 billion in Oregon. The prediction hinges, however, on the assumption that the feds will not shut it all down. Researchers assumed that marijuana would be cultivated and sold for a lower price than Mexican pot in states where weed is legal. The legally grown, cheaper weed would then be smuggled into other states, driving up the demand for lower-cost, local weed.

On Friday, one Mexican legislator, Fernando Belaunzaran of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) went so far as to  propose a marijuana legalization bill . “The prohibitionist paradigm is a complete failure,” Belaunzaran  told the  Washington Post . “All this has done is spur more violence, the business continues. The country that has paid the highest costs is Mexico.”

“I think more and more Mexicans will respond in a similar fashion, as we ask ourselves why are Mexican troops up in the mountains of Sinaloa and Guerrero and Durango looking for marijuana, and why are we searching for tunnels, patrolling the borders, when once this product reaches Colorado it becomes legal,” Jorge Castañe­da, a former foreign minister of Mexico  told the Washington Post .