When you start matching the cartel tit for tat, then you can make a dent in them. If a drug smuggler gets caught, make an example of him. I remember watching one documentary on tv about people caught coming over the border with drugs. The general attitude was "dying is easy, spending the rest of my life in US prison is not." Stick them in 23 hour solitary confinement. Or if the drugs were found without a mule, like in a cargo container or something, put additives in the drugs. When customer start puking and shitting their guts out for days at a time, they won't be buying from that dealer anymore. Ruin it on the local level and it will work it's way up the chain.
Legalizing drugs does nothing but put the rest of the population at risk from those who use drugs and now have an easier way to get them and no penalties to worry about.
That's what the Mexican military did to the Cartels in Juarez 8-9 years ago.
They took over the City and killed every single cartel member they could find. They went door to door putting bullets in people, it was nuts, but it worked.
Even posted bounties for the leaders of the cartel. They literally wiped them out in 2 years.
Juarez was the most dangerous City on the world, people getting killed in public on a daily basis, no laws or rules. The police literally just left town.
But the cartels just moved to another area.
I've spent a lot of time in Mexico and been to Juarez 30 times or so, i've been to over 15 of the different states there. My GF was born there and still has family there.
You can't fix the problems, the entire country is so corrupt there is zero hope. It's just like Bolivia or Venezuela.
There is no way to fix a country when the entire government is the problem.
You can buy steroids legally in Mexico, just walk across the border. But you can only carry a 30-day supply, which is a very relative term.
The majority of the gear purchased in the US comes from private sources that obtain powders from China.
Mexico is trafficking guns, coke, heroine, weed and pills. Oh and little kids too.
The cartels should all be wiped off the face of the planet, but the control like 30% of the Police force.
The level of corruption in Mexico is off the charts. Best just wall it off and let them kill each other off.
Mexico is a horrible place, it's a shame because there are a lot of beautiful places to visit there.
The people there are generally nice, but the rate of poverty is so high they literally have no other choice but to join a cartel or rob people.
The Policia make so little money, they are very easy to bribe. Plus to be a Policia in Mexico requires zero training. Most of them are illiterate morons.