Mexico: The Other Side of the Wall

  The Flow of Precursor Chemicals for Synthetic Drug Production in Mexico This is a report from Insight Crime that investigates the production of synthetic drugs in Mexico. This is an entirely new form of drug production compared with plant-based production.  The latter had some sort of the rural base - concerning poppy, coca leaf, or marijuana cultivation whereas synthetic drug production depends on access to chemical substances that have already been produced - fentanyl or meth in its final form - or the precursors, pre-precursors, and other chemicals (bonding agents, catalysts, reagents, etc) needed to manufacture synthetic drugs.  The supply chains for producing synthetics are completely different and effective drug policy needs to focus on controlling them through multilateral diplomatic efforts as well as regional (at the level of North America) and national (at the level of Mexico) policies. I will summarize this report, beginning with the major findings.  Fir...

El Pais did an interview with representative Dan Crenshaw, an advocate of branding Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations and using military force against them - which would amount to fighting a new war of terror against traffickers, with or without Mexico’s support.  What are the arguments that Crenshaw offers for this position?  First is the threat posed by the cartels because they control parts of Mexico and use fentanyl to poison Americans.  The point of getting authorization for the use of military force is for the U.S. military to collaborate with the Mexican military. Wasn’t this the Merida initiative about, albeit in a more indirect manner - providing training and weapons to Mexican security forces so that they could engage in a “courageous war” (I think according to Hillary Clinton) against the cartels.  “We’re going to stop the cartels, just as we did in Colombia and Panama,” says Crenshaw.  This is a historical analogy that does not stand up to sc...