The New Face of the Retail Drug Trade in Juarez

Here’s an interesting special feature from El Diario about the retail drug trade in Juarez. They say the puchadores have turned to the latest technologies, like cellphones and the webs, to conduct business more discretely. And the drug dealers are less ostentatious now, as illustrated in this graphic:

puchadores graphic
Less Tony Montana and more low key

Another interesting graphic is this table of the maximum quantities allowed for personal use. These figures are the thresholds below which you may be considered to be a user, and not a dealer, though the courts have the final say.

These five kilos of kush, officer?  That's just my personal.
These five kilos of kush, officer? That’s just my personal.

To illustrate the somewhat arbitrary nature of these laws, one time I was in a bar talking with El Vikingo, and I asked him, But isn’t marijuana legal in Mexico? and he said, Go smoke a joint in front of those army guys down the street and then tell me if you think it’s legal.

The whole story is a fascinating account of the change occuring in one of the facets of the drug culture in Mexico.

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