wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

You should feel just as guilty listening to the women beater Chris Brown...as in you should consider not doing it...but...on the other hand its just soooo catchy!

@ jonny goldstein from pittsburgh, pa

Exactly, and I love how this "distinguished" guest passed right over Legalization as a possible solution because it's not "politically viable" - how is continued prohibition "viable"?.

After umpteen years of our own Drug War nothing has changed at all for the better, people still like to get high, just like in every other time and place in known human history. This PHD candidate should spend some time studying the wild success that was the 18th amendment.

Brian, ( and Viridiana) it's prohibition related violence, not drug related violence.

I'm really sick of hearing mexican journalists point to the USA as the "cause" of their drug war and getting away with it because it plays to US policy interests. Is there ANY western country where the demand for drugs is not consistently high? Name one? Mexico is a true oligarchy, even worse than the one that grew in Russia after the USSR broke up. The entire economy is hostage to monopolies, cronyism and a total absence of social welfare interest - couple that with the MOST dysfunctional legal system in the entire hemisphere and it's no wonder the average Mexican is so desirous to become an illegal immigrant.

Mexico is a country in that it has borders and people that speak the same language and share a common history, other than that there is little to define it as a modern "state".

The government itself is little more than another cartel running PEMEX and speaking out of both sides of its face. Look at Carlos Slim, the world's wealthiest man from the world's 13th largest economy (by GDP) but 84th in per capita income! How did that happen, I wonder? People who complain of corruption in the USA have no idea what it's like in Mexico. They cannot control the drug cartels because they don't want to ! None of the Mexican elites are dieing - just soldiers and peasants. What mexico needs is a real head chopping revolution, which is too bad because this is the CIA/Pentagon playground and they'd never let it happen.

Telegram Sam, the cartel's encompass most of Mexico. The majority of the violence is closer to borders but it certainly isn't isolated to the borders alone. There is violence in central and southern Mexico as well.

1. We don't smoke Mexican weed in NYC.

2. Criminalization creates criminals, black markets, and the blood that would not be spilled if drugs were legal and regulated. That's definitional and beyond controversy.

Let's put it this way: If marijuana became legal and multinational corporations decided to get into the game, I would have much more confidence in the abilities of Blackwater to control border drug violence than I do the DEA.

I'm an ex pat living in Mexico and firearms are mostly prohibited. If the firearms were banned in the USA, a cash rich international organization such as the drug cartels would have no problem procuring weapons in the international arms supply. Meanwhile I would sleep much better with a .45 by side to protect my property and family.

"PHONE GIRL"??? sheesh

Wait, why did Ms. Ríos just skim over legalizing drugs? The drug war is what's causing the violence. Legalize drugs, legalize marijuana, let's save all the money we're spending on the DEA and get rid of them. If we make them here ourselves we won't rely on these cartels anymore.

To the caller Joe's comments, in the North-East at least, little of the pot smoked here comes from Mexico. We grow our own. He certainly has a point regarding our own responsibility in the Mexican drug wars but cocaine is more of the issue in our area than pot.

This caller is an idiot, most NY'ers don't smoke sh*tty brick weed from Mexico - it comes from Canada or NJ grow operations. Nor are MJ smokers (who are not marijuana prohibitionists, obvs) responsible for the criminalizing of the drug trade, it is prohibitionists who are responsible for that. Mexico is a messed up country where 200 families control the entire country.

The guest thinks we should stop consuming drugs to save Mexico? Are you kidding? The US "demand" for drugs is no less than Europe or anywhere else. Government policy puts these cartels in business and government policy can put them out of business, overnight if they cared to try.

so let americans grow their own pot!

Please discuss the fact that Mexico is a huge country and the drug violence is virtually all at the border. The majority of Mexico is safer for tourists than most big US cities.