© Reuters/Jorge Duenes
Soldiers remove plants from a marijuana plantation near an area known as 'El Hongo' on the outskirts of the municipality of Tecate, on the border with the U.S. California state, September 25, 2015.
For Mexico City anti-narcotics cop Nieto Lara, a decision by the country's Supreme Court that could eventually lead to the legalization of marijuana means only one thing: major cartels abandoning the drug and focusing on harder stuff.
Wednesday's landmark Supreme Court ruling would allow four people to grow and consume the plant for recreational use in a country ravaged by a decade of drug violence,
but any nationwide legalization of marijuana is likely years away.
The potentially game-changing prospect that California could join a growing list of U.S. states that have legalized pot, coupled with low prices and shifting attitudes in Mexico, could eventually lead the country's gangs to shift away from one of their original exports, many Mexican dealers, police and drug policy experts say.
"If the government allows the sale of marijuana, the price will fall and the cartels will get into some other type of drug, because it won't give them the same profits as it does now," Lara said.
Comment: With Oregon and other states showing how much
revenue they generate from legalized marijuana, it won't take long for this to become widespread for cash-strapped states. This also could give the
industrial uses of hemp a boost as it once was a century ago, which will give large companies producing clothes and paper, car metal suppliers, etc., a run for their money.
Comment: If Quentin Tarantino's comments weren't true, there would be no need for the Fraternal Order of Police to "try to hurt him", since the falseness of the statements would be self-evident.