Whoever argues that drug use is essentially a victimless crime, or simply the right of the autonomous individual to please him or herself, may be ignorant of the violence that underpins the trade.
Drugs cartels have, for instance, pushed Mexico into the most violent period in its modern history, with more than 150,000 people killed in drugs-related violence in the six years up to May 2023. Wars are sometimes fought with fewer casualties.
According to Statista, seven of the top 10 world’s most dangerous cities of 2024 were in Mexico. The top of the list was Colima in the homeland of the notoriously violent Nueva Generacion cartel, where there were 140 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, and second was Ciudad Obregón, a city on the road north to the American border. Naturally, the US border cities of Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana are high on the list, which also includes Zamora, Manzanillo and Zacatecas.
