
Thousands of women and girls disappear in Mexico every year - kposehn
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34172733
======
cousin_it
80-90% of murder victims in Mexico are male. That number is similar to the
worldwide rate, maybe even a bit higher. It seems like Mexico doesn't have any
special problem with murder of women, they just have a huge problem with
murder, period.

~~~
vijayr
But how many of the 80-90% male murders are related to drugs, gangs etc? Vs
these girls and women, who don't seem to be associated with any criminal
activity? Not saying those men don't matter, just that drugs/gang violence and
murder of innocents are two different problems

~~~
tsotha
Why do you assume women aren't associated with criminal activity? It's not
uncommon for women to get busted running drugs.

~~~
vijayr
Maybe, but this article talks about those women who aren't associated with
drugs or gangs

------
sigma2015
Judging from what you read and hear about Mexico it seems to be trapped in a
downward spiral degenerating every aspect about its society and government.
It's absolutely disgusting and revealing to watch documentaries like "Narco
Cultura" and about their eating disorders
[[http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/america-fattest-obese-
un-14...](http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/america-fattest-obese-
un-144341236.html)].

You want to grab that country by the shoulders and shake it to its senses. But
then again you (or whatever is left of your body) don't want to end up hanging
upside down from a bridge somewhere ...

~~~
cpursley
"You want to grab that country by the shoulders and shake it to its senses."

You mean the USA, right? The "Narco Cultura" would not exist if it were not
the United States "War on Drugs".

~~~
rayiner
Those people who are capable of those things and that level of corruption to
make a few bucks on illicit drugs would still exist.

I just don't get this line of reasoning. If you take marijuana out of the
equation, 80-90% of Americans think drugs should be illegal. They don't want
drugs in their communities and in their society. And they're the bad guys for
exercising their democratic right to regulate their own society, because some
opportunists in Mexico are deranged enough to kill a bunch of people to
circumvent those rules?

~~~
WorldWideWayne
I don't buy it. American people _do_ want drugs in their community and in
their society or else the US wouldn't be the biggest market for illicit drugs
in the world.

~~~
rayiner
Only about 10% of Americans over 12 use any sort of illicit drugs, and most of
that is marijuana. The vast majority of Americans don't use illicit drugs and
don't want drug use in their communities.

~~~
wfo
The most recent two sitting US presidents used cocaine. They certainly wanted
illicit drugs and drug use -- and harder drugs than marijuana, which an
overwhelming majority of Americans have tried -- in their communities at some
point in their lives though they may or may not want that now. I think your
statement is very, very far from correct (even if you don't include the
enormous proportion of Americans who illegally abuse prescription drugs which
are generally much 'harder' than the drugs you get on the street) and just the
wishful thinking of a small number of social conservatives for whom drugs have
been turned into a convenient bogeyman to blame when anything in society goes
wrong.

~~~
rayiner
As I said, I'm not talking about marijuana. The vast majority (75-85%) of
Mexican drug cartel revenues come from other sources:
[http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/22/how-can-
mari...](http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/22/how-can-marijuana-be-
sold-safely/why-marijuana-legalization-wouldnt-end-drug-crime).

And I think you're delusional about the "small number of social conservatives"
who think drugs are a problem. Support for keeping drugs like cocaine and
heroin illegal ranges from 80-90%:
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/drug-
legalization-p...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/drug-legalization-
poll_n_5162357.html). Marijuana is the only one that a slim majority think
shouldn't be legal.

Also, most people do not try drugs harder than marijuana at any point:
[http://archive.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2012SummNatFindDetTable...](http://archive.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2012SummNatFindDetTables/DetTabs/NSDUH-
DetTabsSect1peTabs1to46-2012.htm#Tab1.1B). 70% of people never try an illicit
drug other than marijuana, and only 7.5% report using an illicit drug other
than marijuana in the past year.

And even if a substantial minority of people do try an illicit drug other than
marijuana at some point, what does that mean? 13% of surveyed Americans
reported driving drunk _in the past year_ (double the percentage that report
doing any non-marijuana illicit drug in the past year):
[http://www.fairwarning.org/2010/12/more-than-30-million-
amer...](http://www.fairwarning.org/2010/12/more-than-30-million-americans-
have-driven-while-drunk-survey-finds). How many of them do you think
nonetheless believe drunk driving should be illegal? Does the fact that a
minority of people engage in conduct that may be hypocritical negate the
sentiments of the majority?

~~~
wfo
I think you're excluding the abuse of prescription drugs (and for that matter
alcohol) in your assessment with the 70% and 7.5% numbers, which are very
important -- they are the drugs which haven't been the victims of a concerted
and well-funded aggressive propaganda campaign by social conservatives
spanning many years to demonize the drugs.

I think your point about drinking and driving isn't quite accurate: I think if
you refine your definition of drinking and driving in both survey results
about actions and survey results about laws you may find different results:
many people have drank a couple of beers before driving home; fewer have
driven blackout drunk. Most agree the latter should be illegal, but the first?
A more appropriate analogy would be, instead of suggesting we ban drunk
driving (a universally laudable goal to ban not a substance but a particular
misuse of it), how many Americans do you think would say alcohol should be
illegal? I'd say on the order of zero.

You need to understand survey results in the context of the previously
mentioned propaganda campaign: people don't quite exactly say what they really
believe in the face of this, they say what they have been conditioned to
believe in some sense. We need to look at their actual actions and provide
context for the responses from them in terms of what they do. If someone
really believes marijuana should be illegal, they won't try it or use it.
Similarly with the harder drugs. We are slowly undoing the damage that has
been done to this country with the anti-drug campaigns but it takes time;
marijuana is the beginning. It's not really fair to say Americans are actually
anti-drug after such an effective brainwashing session.

Also all of your points are based on survey results: and when it comes to
drugs what people say they do or want and what they actually do or want are
quite distinct. I don't think relying on them is reasonable: instead to get
some accurate proportion we'd need to look at the drugs coming in and do some
calculus based on how they are distributed among the population.

