Whose Drug War? - The New Yorker

American drug consumers provide the market the cartels battle each other to serve, of course. Nobody knows how much cash is transferred each year from the United States to Mexico for purchases of imported marijuana, cocaine, and synthetic drugs, but some estimates run as high as $30 billion annually. Marijuana probably accounts for most of the sales. I was surprised, perusing the 2010 United Nations World Drug Report, to see what a stoner nation we are. Almost one out of five Americans is estimated to use pot annually, according to the U.N. That is more than four times the rate in Mexico. It is irrefutable that the Mexican drug cartels exist because American politics and policy have not adequately recognized domestic illegal drug use as a public health issue, rather only as a crime. If you smoke, it would be ethical to smoke your own.