Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized
Falsely Accused Pot Mom Released in Mexico; Case Argues for Decriminalization

Falsely Accused Pot Mom Released in Mexico; Case Argues for Decriminalization

Juan Cole 05/31/2013

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

The release of Yanira Maldonado from a Mexican jail after an apparent attempt to frame her for marijuana trafficking underlines the need to end the disastrous “war on drugs” and to legalize marijuana. Maldonado only escaped a very unpleasant fate because she happened to be exonerated by a surveillance video showing her boarding a bus visibly lacking in 6 kilos of pot.

ABC News reports

Over 600,000 Americans are arrested every year on marijuana offenses, and those arrests, jailings and court sentences cost more than $10 billion every year. Roughly 50,000 people are in jail for marijuana offenses, costing another $1 billion a year. More Americans are now arrested for marijuana than for all violent crimes combined. Wouldn’t we have less crime if police were freed to go after, like, actual criminals?

All this is not to mention the ways in which the system produces injustice and corruption. Ms. Maldonado wouldn’t be the first person falsely accused by someone hoping to get a bribe or to pass blame to someone else.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Albanese Sanctions: Marco Rubio now Acting just Like Putin, Charging Human Rights Officials
  • War Criminal Netanyahu nominates Felon Trump for the Nobel Prize
  • Why Faith Leaders are standing up to the Largest pro-Israel Christian Lobby
  • Plans to Concentrate Gaza Palestinians in Rafah Camp a Crime against Humanity
  • Grok's MechaHitler Antisemitic Rant shows how Generative AI can be Weaponized

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved