The lead article in the July 2009 Socionomist focused on the violence of the Drug War that bloodies the streets of the U.S. and especially Mexico. That article forecast an eventual end to marijuana prohibition, which in turn would end the corruption and bloodshed. In the few weeks since publication, Mexico has already taken an important step in fulfilling that forecast: President Felipe Calderón just approved a law that decriminalizes small-scale possession of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD and methamphetamines. The new policy sets out maximum "personal use" limits for those drugs, and possession within those limits will no longer be prosecuted.

 

The July 2009 Socionomist had this to say:

 

The story of [alcohol] Prohibition after the 1929 stock market peak is a model for how the current crisis in Mexico and the U.S. is likely to play out. ... The public simply grew fed up with the criminal warring and the corruption, violence and death associated with law enforcement efforts. In the end, public mood demanded change and Prohibition was repealed.

 

More than 11,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Calderón declared war on the Mexican cartels in December 2006. His government has sought to distinguish addicts and casual users from violent traffickers and the cartels which instigate the bloodshed. A final end to drug prohibition in the U.S. and Mexico will probably require a far larger body count for public mood to fully turn against the Drug War. Even so, the current state-of-affairs in Mexico is sufficiently grim for at least one step in that direction — decriminalization on a small-scale.

 

The Socionomist is the only publication that can keep you ahead of rapidly changing social-mood trends. Subscribe now and get instant access to the July 6 issue that forecast "The Coming Collapse of a Modern Prohibition," the brand new August issue co-authored by Bob Prechter, plus the May and June 2009 issues focused on epidemic disease.