As is universally accepted by everyone who has ever studied the issue, the situation in Mexico became violent when the old hegemonic cartel structure fractured and new groups rushed to fill the power vacuum. The violence is wholly attributable to the drug cartels and the legal status of drugs, even if it doesn't track 100% with how the United States has funded the war on drugs (which, really, why would it).

I've noticed you have a tendency to pop into threads, lob in an out of context chart or factoid, and confidently assert a contrarian opinion. As someone who shares that contrarian impulse, I'd strongly recommend you try to master that urge. You're a very insightful commentator when you stick to what you know.

idk what it's like where you live, but in my city the overwhelming majority of murders are linked to the illicit narcotics trade. maybe they would think of some other illegal shit to kill each other over if drugs were legalized, but I find it hard to believe that the violence wouldn't subside a bit if their main revenue stream were cut off.

also, it seems questionable to extrapolate the outcome of legalization in the US based on data from mexico.

> maybe they would think of some other illegal shit to kill each other over if drugs were legalized, but I find it hard to believe that the violence wouldn't subside a bit if their main revenue stream were cut off.

You might think that but the data doesn’t really support it: http://polyticks.com/polyticks/beararms/liars/uscentury.gif. Homicide rates were spiking in the US long before prohibition. Likewise, after going down post WWII, homicide rates started spiking before the drug war. They had almost doubled from the previous low point by the time Nixon was elected. Nixon coined the phrase drug war, but didn’t really fund it aggressively. That was Reagan. But homicide were near the peak by the time he was even elected.

> also, it seems questionable to extrapolate the outcome of legalization in the US based on data from mexico.

Not really—the cartels supply demand for drugs in the US. And OP was blaming the US drug war for violence in Mexico.

What does that chart show exactly? Timepoints are labled, data are not.

It shows US homicides per 100,000 people.

Maybe the real friends were the drugs we made along the way