1. Drug wars in Mexico JassimAl Darwish 9B- Mr. Swords

2. Map of Mexico

3. Since 2006, there have been more than 6000 deaths each year in Mexico because of a war between different drug cartels. These cartels are actually gangs like the Mafia, but they are fighting each other to control the sale of drugs in United States. On the map, the states in red are where the violence is happening.

4. Social Impacts Not all the dead people are members of gangs or involved with drugs. A few days ago, a party for high school students was attacked and 16 teenagers were killed. Nobody knows why they were attacked, but their families say that they were not involved with drugs or drug gangs.

6. Another effect of this drug violence is that tourists are afraid to visit Mexico and a lot of money is lost. Many people in Mexico depend on tourists for their jobs, so if not so many tourists come, there will not be so many jobs, and more people will be out of work. This might lead some of them to join the drug gangs in order to get some money and will make the problem worse.

7. Economic Impacts USA is affected because the violence could start there too as drug cartels try to control the sale of drugs in USA. Guns for the fight come from USA and this means that these guns could be used in USA too. The government of USA is spending $700 million a year to stop the violence from spreading to USA and to help the government of Mexico.

8. Political Impacts The government of Mexico is affected because it has to spend a lot of money to try to stop the violence and arrest the leaders of the drug cartels. The army has been sent to the states where the violence is greatest and this costs a lot. There are 45,000 soldiers fighting the cartels because the police are weak and many of them are paid by the drug cartels.

9. Environmental Impacts Mexico produces drugs and also buys drugs from other countries like Colombia. These drugs are marijuana and cocaine, and they are sold in USA. Some people believe that the drug business is worth between 14 and 48 billion dollars each year.

10. The effect of this war is not only in Mexico, but also in USA, because the drugs are sold in USA and the guns to fight the war are bought in USA. The danger for USA is that the war could happen in USA as well as Mexico.

11. Solutions for the problem The main problem is because people in USA buy huge amounts of illegal drugs every year. This is why the profits from selling drugs are so large. If the government of USA tried to stop so many people taking drugs, the gangs would not have so many people to buy and the violence would go down.

12. Another way to stop the violence would be to make drugs legal and for the government to control the sale of drugs, like they do with alcohol. This would mean that the drug cartels could sell their drugs legally and they would become like tobacco or alcohol makers.

13. Bibliography Pictures: http://search.creativecommons.org/# Information: "Mexico's Drug War - Stories, Photos, Videos - Mexico Under Siege - World News - Los Angeles Times." Databases, Lists, Maps, Rankings - Data Desk - Los Angeles Times. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. <http://projects.latimes.com/mexico-drug-war/#/its-a-war>.

14. "BBC News - Q&A: Mexico's drug-fuelled violence." BBC NEWS | News Front Page. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7906284.stm>. "White Hose unveils plan to fight border drug cartels - Los Angeles Times." Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. <http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/25/nation/na-obama-border25>.

15. "Mexico massacre response fails to convince - latimes.com." Los Angeles Times - California, L.A., Entertainment and World news - latimes.com. Web. 06 Feb. 2010. <http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-juarez5-2010feb05,0,2623896.story>.