Going to Puerto Vallarta next month for a bachelor party (non-stop Virgin America flight!), then Playa del Carmen in July for a friend's birthday. It'll be my 3rd time in PV and I've never had any problems there. I'm very excited.

Legalizing drug usage and sales wouldn't solve the violence issue. The cartels running the show take a greater profit due to the unavailability of the drugs. If drugs were to be legalized, we'd see an uptick in violence as the cartels attempted to scare tobacco companies into staying the hell away from the marijuana business.

Can't it be both?

AverageAmericanGuy: If drugs were to be legalized, we'd see an uptick in violence as the cartels attempted to scare tobacco companies into staying the hell away from the marijuana business.

Bullshiat, it's too easy to say fark both of them and grow your own.

I_Can't_Believe_it's_not_Boutros: Can't it be both?

Maybe, if they accidentally

I used to advocate the use of Mercenaries instead of the Mexican army or PD's

Spent some time looking into things a bit closer.

They'd be a whole lot better off if the NSA or CIA would get out of th . . . . ****LOST CARRIER****



because you know, we have such a stellar track record in Guatamala

indeebud: Mexico is a sewer. Period. Corrupt and defunct are but the sprinkles of piss on the planet that country offers the world.

Sooo...does that mean you like it, or don't like it?

Mexico should discover another huge oil field, it would increase their chances of being invaded by us.

AverageAmericanGuy: Legalizing drug usage and sales wouldn't solve the violence issue. The cartels running the show take a greater profit due to the unavailability of the drugs. If drugs were to be legalized, we'd see an uptick in violence as the cartels attempted to scare tobacco companies into staying the hell away from the marijuana business.

I bet the tobacco companies could hire some lobbyists to make it legal for them to decapitate a few cartel members. They've already legally killed killed 71,000,000 million people what's a few more? (new window)

Too late. Not going to happen.

In the entire history of the world, the sum total of all human beings who ever lived is nowhere close to 71 trillion people.

You can tell the huge amount of money and corruption there is with drugs, if they were really serious about ending all that violence, they would legalize them.

Same goes for every stupid country that hasn't done the same, including this one. Prohibition doesn't end drug abuse.

Ain't no money in legalization, thus, ain't gonna happen.

The predicate assumption behind prohibition is becoming so doubtful: That the state is disposed to care about the well-being of the citizenry.

There are so many ways life could be made better without impinging upon anyone's freedom.

Plenty of other places to go, without the worry. Like Key West. No passport needed.

Pick: Plenty of other places to go, without the worry. Like Key West. No passport needed.

You might need a condom. Oh, and a ten dollar bill hidden under the rental car seat in case you put all your singles tween a thong and a hard place.

It's still safe to vacation there, just don't wear a cap.

Love the thought of how pot 'legalization' would make Mexico a paradise. The people in the crime business there are not about to say "oh well...it was nice while it lasted".

Wait till they take on the tourist industry by sending tourists heads back in boxes to deter tourism and extort the industry.

Mitch Mitchell: Pick: Plenty of other places to go, without the worry. Like Key West. No passport needed.

You might need a condom. Oh, and a ten dollar bill hidden under the rental car seat in case you put all your singles tween a thong and a hard place.

Erm...what kind of strip clubs are you going to?


/not that there's anything wrong with that...

AverageAmericanGuy: In the entire history of the world, the sum total of all human beings who ever lived is nowhere close to 71 trillion people.

Well, only because so many have died from tobacco.


/liberal use of copy/paste has probably only killed 3 or 4

The only way to make Mexico touristy is to bring in a massive fleet of Caterpillar D10's or D11's and scrape off the shiat.

Stop running your country like a goddamn feudal-era fiefdom, ya stupid bastards.

Mexico City has a lot to offer but chopping off heads along with the massive pollution and the incredible crime rate (outside of decapitation) really makes it not so attractive. Last time I was there my throat hurt for a solid week after I left. The air is brown.

monoski: Mexico City has a lot to offer but chopping off heads along with the massive pollution and the incredible crime rate (outside of decapitation) really makes it not so attractive. Last time I was there my throat hurt for a solid week after I left. The air is brown.

So, how YOU doing?

/NTTIAWWT

Recently, though, she's seen a change, citing a client who had just returned from a trip to Tulum on the Yucatan peninsula. "They'd never been to Mexico," said O'Keefe, "and they were intimidated by people who said, 'Don't go, it's dangerous.'"

Their impression?

"They had no problems, they had a ball and they said they'd go again," said O'Keefe. "They came back wondering what everybody was talking about."


Great reporting: take at face value a third-hand account from someone with a vested interest, telling a story that couldn't be better-designed to assuage people's concerns about spending their money for the benefit of the storyteller.

meh - their government is too lazy, feckless, and flatulent to bother actually doing anything about.

The problem with Mexico is that there are too many Mexicans. Look it up.

Legalizing drug usage and sales wouldn't solve the violence issue. The cartels running the show take a greater profit due to the unavailability of the drugs. If drugs were to be legalized, we'd see an uptick in violence as the cartels attempted to scare tobacco companies into staying the hell away from the marijuana business.

Bullshiat. Do you think a Merck/Cargill/Phillip Morris partnership growing on mega-farms in California would really be a target for MS-13 terrorists? That would be a bad move on their part, and would virtually guarantee Pakistan-like drone strikes and Navy SEAL snatch-n-grabs, if not a more forceful response. That would be bad for business.

No, they'd do what happened in the Golden Triangle...move to meth and other drugs that will likely never be legalized, and that are easy to manufacture in well-hidden labs. They're businessmen, like Al Capone.

give me doughnuts: Exactly. Just like all the Mob violence has kept them in control of the alcohol trade ever since Prohibition ended.

Case in point.

how about no.

does no work for ya?

indeebud: Mexico is a sewer. Period. Corrupt and defunct are but the sprinkles of piss on the planet that country offers the world.

I know the words, but what you're saying doesn't make sense.

Evenbiggerknickers: That is good news. I've always preferred my vacations with small amounts of decapitations.

Israel

After December 2012, a Toltec Calendar will be discovered with a new Doomsday™ Date of December 2013. Get your pre-discovery reservations in now.

Mexico has so many problems, I suspect they're just trying pretty much anything they can to keep their head above water. There's a huge demographic shift in Mexico; the population is ageing fast. They have always had a brain-drain, with nearly all of their educated/productive citizens moving to other places esp to the US. I really don't see any easy solutions for for all of Mexico's problems.

"Mexico could force drug policy change upon us and strangely, they hold more power in that regard than the American electorate." A lot of people would not agree with that statement, but I do. As the crime and violence really starts to move north into American cities in a big way, and it will, then things are eventually going to get pretty serious. Then questions like more gun control and legalization of substances are going to become open to very serious questions. When more of the voting public start seeing gang violence happening in their own backyard they're going to wonder "is it all worth it?". No way. That's when the legalization movement start to see a much more receptive audience.

In other non-decapitat-y news, what's up with this photo? Is it just me, or is the perspective really skewed? None of the buildings seem to be on the same plane. (Bad shoop?)

A flight from San Antonio to Mexico?
Those are not tourists, those are people going back to visit their relatives.

With so many other places to go down south, I couldn't care less about Mexico. As long as all this doesn't result in an increased number of American tourists in Cuba, then whatever...

/Canadian

signaljammer: The predicate assumption behind prohibition is becoming so doubtful: That the state is disposed to care about the well-being of the citizenry.

There are so many ways life could be made better without impinging upon anyone's freedom.

That's the argument anti-vaxxers make, too.