Is there though? The difference in Mexico is the sheer amount of power and money that the cartels possess. These aren’t just gangs like MS-13. They are full on paramilitary organizations with billions of dollars in capital that stretches through just as many legal business interests as illegal ones, connections to the highest levels of government, and most importantly the kind of social control over the public consciousness that borders on collective psychosis due to the sheer degree of constant heinous violence.
I really wonder if we have gone past the point of no return with this issue where the only solution is open warfare with the cartels. I have spent A LOT of time thinking about this issue over the years working on the legal & illegal side of the trade. I know it seems insane, but I truly believe it may get to that point.
In my younger years I was 100% on-board with the legalization of all drugs. Now after seeing the the damage that was caused by the legal opioid crisis, and the even greater damage that is likely to be caused by the fentanyl scourge…I am not so sure. The greed motive from profiteering off human suffering is simply too great. Mix that with regulatory capture and legal government corruption in the form of lobbying and you have a truly terrifying recipe for disaster. I am just not sure what the solution is anymore, but the damage and the violence is getting worse. Something needs to change. Maybe that starts with popular uprisings as you said, but the kind of prolonged violence that will be necessary to accomplish that end is hard to imagine.